Essen (dpa / lnw) - Frost at night and snow at higher altitudes: After a somewhat milder phase, winter is back in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the weekend nights it cools down to minus 5 degrees, on Saturday it should snow at altitudes above 200 to 400 meters, as the German Weather Service (DWD) announced on Friday. A white blanket of snow is therefore probably mainly in the Hochsauerland.
Drivers should drive more carefully than usual in this weather, but skiers and snowboarders should be happy: the fresh snow - which is also expected to fall on Friday - ensures that in the ski areas near Winterberg one or the other lift that was last switched off goes back into operation. Up to 50 lifts should run at the weekend, as announced by the Sauerland winter sports arena. The fresh snow provides good conditions, but is unlikely to be enough for the operation of pure natural snow slopes.
As a DWD meteorologist said, temperatures of 5 to 8 degrees are expected during the day on Saturday. Precipitation falls mainly in the morning and mid-morning. In the flat country they fall as rain showers, above 200 to 400 meters as snow. According to the meteorologist, between six and eight centimeters of snow could remain in the Sauerland. Otherwise there should be a snow cover in NRW at most in the Eifel, but according to the forecast only up to two centimeters will remain here.
In the night to Sunday it cools down to minus 4 degrees. It can become slippery - given the frost, not only in areas where it has snowed. According to the DWD forecast, there will be mostly no snow and no rain on Sunday. The maximum temperatures are between 6 degrees on the Lower Rhine and 3 degrees in East Westphalia. In the night to Monday there is a risk of ice again with temperatures of up to minus 5 degrees.
