The weather in Germany in January 2019

A great deal of snow in the and low mountain ranges – wet and cold overall

Offenbach, 30 January 2019 – Low-pressure areas generally dominated central in January. Clouds and precipitation fields repeatedly pushed against the northern edges of the low mountain ranges and the Alps, causing extreme continuous snowfall there in some instances. Winter temperatures prevailed at times, whereas otherwise the weather mostly tended to be mild. During the second half of the month, all of Ger- many was under the influence of high pressure for about a week. In general, this pro- duced much sunshine and a few cold nights, including in lowland areas. Overall, this produced a comparatively mild January with much precipitation and average sunshine. This is what the initial analysis by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) of data from its around 2,000 weather stations shows.

Temperatures in the south mostly average, relatively mild in the north At 0.6 degrees Celsius (°C), the average temperature in January was 1.1 degrees higher than for the international reference period 1961–1990. Looking at the compara- tive period 1981–2010, the deviation was 0.2 degrees above normal. The temperatures in January 2019 barely deviated from the long-term average in the Alps and low moun- tain ranges, where there were repeated periods of significant snowfall. In contrast, the month was mild mainly in the North German lowland and some low-lying river areas. The mercury rose to its highest level on 27 January, when 11.0 °C was measured in Rheinfelden am Hochrhein. From 18 to 25 January, the high pressure system 'Brigida' brought colder air and temporarily determined the weather so that a few days of con- tinuous frost were experienced nearly everywhere in Germany. Although in southern Germany the sky only cleared for brief periods at night in the areas covered by a deep blanket of snow, this is where the lowest temperatures were measured, such as -18.1 °C in Oberstdorf on 22 January and -18.6 °C in Deutschneudorf-Brüderwiese in the Ore Mountains on 21 January.

Much precipitation in total – exceptionally heavy snowfall in the Alps With just under 80 l/m², January recorded approximately 127 per cent of the long-term average of 61 litres per square metre (l/m²). Continuous snowfall between 6 and 15 January along the northern edge of the low mountain ranges and the Alps resulted in chaotic conditions. In the Chiemgau, in particular, some places were buried under snow. The emergency services, the national army and volunteer helpers worked con- tinuously to remove the huge amounts of snow from roofs that were in danger of col- lapsing. In Ruhpolding-Seehaus, 210 cm of snow were recorded on 11 January, which was topped by 240 cm in Anger-Stoißberg near Bad Reichenhall on 13 January. New station records were set in numerous places. In terms of precipitation amounts, Ruhpolding-Seehaus reported an unbelievable total of 436.7 l/m² between 1 and 15 January. In contrast, in some areas January was too dry. Rainfall in some places in northern Thuringia and on the Upper Plain was less than 20 l/m² and the north of Schleswig-Holstein only saw around a third of average.

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Sunshine barely deviated from the long-term average At around 45 hours, sunshine nationally was at around the long-term average of 44 hours. Sunny measuring sites where nearly 70 hours were recorded were distributed all over Germany but mainly on the leeward side of mountains. However, in the northern and along the Swabian Alb some places saw fewer than 25 hours of sun- shine.

All the monthly values stated in this press release are provisional figures. The data used for the last four days of the month are based on forecasts. Some of the meas- urements from DWD's network of stations were not yet available at the time of publica- tion.

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