Overview
- Early on Monday, freezing rain created slick roads in parts of NRW, with slow traffic and some accidents reported, as DWD maintained high-level ice warnings through about 8 a.m. in the west and up to 1 p.m. in East Westphalia.
- Dorothee Feller stressed that this is not a day off and defended the precaution as a safety measure taken early to give families and schools time to plan.
- Schools switched to distance instruction using established tools such as Teams and Moodle, postponed in-person exams, and ensured supervision for any students who still arrived, with limited emergency care available.
- Conditions varied locally—Bottrop streets were largely just wet during the commute—while some cities curtailed services, with transport operators dropping school reinforcement runs and several municipalities warning of constraints at childcare centers.
- Opposition FDP leader Henning Höne criticized the statewide order as disproportionate and urged milder options, even as other regions in Germany also suspended in-person classes based on local decisions.