The weather in Germany in November 2016 An average cool, yet sunny November

Offenbach, 29 November 2016 – November 2016 brought extremely changeable weather to Germany. The weather presented a varied repertoire including spells of stormy weather and a late-summery interlude in the south. Overall, the month was too dry but sunny. Temperature was average. This is what the initial analysis by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) of data from its around 2,000 weather stations shows.

Regionally, mild days alternated with colder periods

At an average temperature of 3.9 degrees Celsius (°C), the last autumn month of 2016 was 0.1 degrees cooler than the average for the international reference period 1961–1990. The deviation with reference to the 1981–2010 period was -0.5 degrees. At the end of the first ten days, the interaction between the low pressure system 'Husch' over northern France and the low pressure system 'Ilka' over eastern Europe brought early winter temperatures throughout Germany. In northern Germany, in particular, the DWD recorded relatively large negative temperature deviations between 1 and 15 November – for Hamburg, for example, it was as much as -2.5 degrees. Under the influence of high pressure, Deutschneudorf-Brüderwiese in the mid-range Ore Mountains registered the lowest monthly temperature with a frosty -12.0 °C on the morning of 14 November. In contrast, the second half of the month saw the start of a period that was comparatively mild for the season. On 21 November, the föhn brought large temperatures contrasts in regions of the south: at 6.00 p.m., Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance recorded 20 °C, which would be typical for late summer, while in Pfullendorf in Upper Swabia, which is only 35 km away, the mercury only reached 4 °C. The highest figure in Germany was also recorded on 21 November (21.9 °C in Rosenheim).

Too dry overall, snowfalls in some areas right down to the lowlands

With around 60 litres per square metre (l/m²), rainfall in November 2016 was significantly lower than the average of 66 l/m². At the start of the month, precipitation – even at higher altitudes – was still falling as rain. It was only when the low pressure systems 'Husch' and 'Ilka' started to dominate the weather pattern that snowflakes fell, sometimes even as far as lowland areas. On the evening of 8 November, Boizenburg to the south-east of Hamburg reported snow 21 cm deep. However, the early winter did not only create an attractive landscape: on 15 November, the freezing rain in the Harz Mountains brought treacherous icy roads and caused accidents. Most rain and snow fell in the northern Black Forest with up to 225 l/m². The DWD recorded the lowest precipitation of around 20 l/m² along a line from the northern foothills of the Harz Mountains to the Magdeburg Börde in Saxony Anhalt and then continuing to the Havelland west of Berlin.

The sun favoured south-eastern Bavaria and the Upper Lusatian region

With around 60 hours of sunshine, the figure for November was a good 10 per cent higher than the normal of 53 hours. With almost 85 hours, south-eastern Bavaria and the Upper Lusatian region saw most sunshine, whereas Upper Swabia and the Spessart only received around 40 hours of sunshine.

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