First a winter weekend like in a picture book, then mild temperatures and rain. The weather brings a lot of variety to the Hessians. But that also harbors dangers.
Offenbach (dpa/lhe) - After an ice-cold night, many Hessians were able to enjoy Sunday in calm winter weather. On the night of Sunday, the thermometer in North and East Hesse dropped to minus 14.9 degrees, as reported by the German Weather Service (DWD). The coldest measured locations were Fulda-Horas and Burgwald-Bottendorf (Waldeck-Frankenberg district).
The calm weather conditions ended on Monday: Freezing rain and rain set in in the second half of the night. The wetness can cause a significant risk of black ice on the frozen ground.
According to the DWD, the rain will decrease from the south-west over the course of the day and it will be significantly warmer. In the evening there will be little loosening and there will be no precipitation. The temperatures rise to 3 to 6 degrees. Lows of 5 to 2 degrees are expected on Tuesday night, and there is only frost in the mountains.
Tuesday will be cloudy to heavily overcast, with occasional rain coming from the north-west. The maximum temperatures reach 6 to 9 degrees, at high altitudes around 5 degrees. Lows of 8 to 3 degrees are predicted for Wednesday night.
- Winter sports
The first ski weekend in Hesse's winter sports areas started with numerous visitors and the best weather. Several thousand pedestrians and skiers were out and about in Willingen (Waldeck-Frankenberg district) on Saturday under a bright blue sky, as spokesman Jörg Wilke announced on Saturday. However, the country's largest ski area is not overcrowded. "People still have a lot of space on the slopes," said Wilke. About 50 centimeters of artificial snow lie on the downhill runs. The ski season started on Wednesday. According to Wilke, that was the earliest start to the ski season in twelve years. All lifts in Willingen have been in operation since Thursday.
The ski slope operator on the Wasserkuppe (Fulda district) was also satisfied. "It's well attended, but not yet overcrowded," said the operations manager of the Wasserkuppe ski and toboggan arena, Florian Heitmann, on Saturday. Visitors could look forward to 40 centimeters of artificial snow and up to 20 centimeters of natural snow. With minus ten degrees and sunshine, there were also the best conditions for skiing. December is unusually cold this year anyway, said Heitmann, who has been working on the Wasserkuppe for 20 years. In the ski area in the Rhön, the starting signal was also given on Wednesday.
- air traffic
Because of the winter weather, almost 40 aircraft were allowed to take off and land outside of normal operating hours at Frankfurt Airport on Sunday night. The Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Sunday that air traffic control had issued 34 special permits for departures between 11 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. The last plane took off at 11:58 p.m. bound for Algeria. There were also three delayed landings. The last plane landed at 11:35 p.m. from Gran Canaria.
Because of the cold weather, aircraft reportedly had to be de-iced repeatedly. In the past few days, as a result of the frosty temperatures in Frankfurt, such exemptions for aircraft have been issued more frequently. As a rule, night flights are prohibited at Germany's largest airport between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
- Curious rescue operation
In Rüdesheim (Rheingau-Taunus district), police officers picked up a man who was wandering around on a street early on Saturday morning at minus ten degrees, wearing only his underpants. In a patrol car, the drunk 27-year-old was able to warm up with a blanket, officials said on Sunday. "With the warm-up, his memories came back patchy," they continued. Finally, the Frankfurter could be brought back to his holiday home in Rüdesheim.
