Overview
- Germany’s weather service issued widespread alerts covering more than 350 districts, including some Orange-level warnings, for frost, icy roads and snowfall on Tuesday heading into New Year’s Eve.
- Forecasters expect a hazardous mix of snow, sleet and pockets of freezing rain on New Year’s Eve and overnight, creating dangerous travel conditions and renewed glätte.
- Inland and southern areas face the sharpest cold, with lows around −6°C in the Rhine plain and down to about −11°C in the Allgäu and Black Forest, while parts of the Bavarian Alps could see 5–10 cm of new snow.
- Northern coastal regions will be milder and windier with rain and isolated storm gusts, in contrast to colder, locally snowy conditions across central and southern Germany.
- Hospitals and authorities report accidents from existing ice, including 115 glätte-related injuries in Berlin within 24 hours, and meteorologists are monitoring early January model signals for a possible prolonged winter phase that remains uncertain.