Weather in Germany: Bitter cold gives way to mild temperatures this week

This week has gotten off to a chilly start in Germany, with record lows measured in the Erzgebirge and rain rolling in from the west. The German Weather Service (DWD) is warning of icy roads and treacherous conditions, but things will get warmer pretty quickly. 

This winter’s coldest temperature measured on Monday morning

Winter has still got Germany firmly in its grip: after a week of snowstorms, frozen autobahns and iced railway lines, Monday brought in some of the coldest temperatures of the season so far. In Kühnhaide, a district of the city of Marienberg in southern Saxony, near the border with the Czech Republic, a low of -28,8 degrees was recorded at 5 am on Monday morning, thus setting the nationwide cold record for winter 2020 / 2021. 

In western Germany, a wet weather front rolled in during the night to Monday. The DWD warned that this would make for treacherous conditions as the rain froze on the cold ground, and therefore issued black ice warnings for many regions, including Lower Saxony, Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. “Drivers have to be careful,” said a DWD meteorologist. A number of trains in the region were already cancelled on Monday morning. 

This rain will continue eastwards as the day progresses, and gradually turn to snow as it reaches colder regions. Meteorologists are expecting between three and 10 centimetres of fresh snow in the eastern parts of the country. 

Spring-like temperatures and sun heading to Germany

In the course of the coming week, the weather will get much milder, as a low-pressure front from the Atlantic spills over Germany. The DWD is expecting temperatures to rise to up to 13 degrees in the west and southwest on Tuesday and Wednesday, with heavy cloud cover causing isolated showers and frost-free nights. 

Towards the weekend, things are looking - dare we say it? - almost spring-like, with highs of up to 17 degrees expected in western Germany on Saturday - a huge difference of nearly 46 degrees within one week! The weekend should remain mostly dry, with the possibility of some sunshine poking through. In the northeast the high will be between 5 and 10 degrees, elsewhere in the country 10 to 15 degrees.