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Snow on Christmas in Germany - a probability view for white Christmas based on long-term average

Posted by (Schwerin) on

I found an interesting article which provides an illustration based on a Germany map with probabilities for snow on Christmas based on long-term averages.

Important facts:

  1. In Germany there is no place with a snow guarantee, maybe only exception is Zugspitze.
  2. The probability for snow increases with the altitude of a travel destination.
  3. The weather forecast horizon in Germany is max. between 5 and 7 days, often shorter around 3-5 days.
  4. The last white Christmas all over Germany was in 2010, and before that it was in 1981. So it is becoming an increasingly rare event anyway.

Link to full article in German language:
https://www.tagesschau.de/wetter/wetterthema/whitechristmas-100.html

Tip: when you plan to travel Germany by rental car in winter always book winter tires. They are mandatory by law in winter road conditions, i.e., black ice, snow, slush, ice, or frost. So, even when only expecting low temperatures (rule of thumb thumb: lower than 7° C) you may only drive with winter tires (details).

Happy travels.

Posted by
4212 posts

Actually the Auto Europe page provides wrong information: Germany has a situation / weather condition based duty for winter tires - not a date-based.

Details on law and duty by ADAC (a German AAA) in the third link of my post.

Posted by
7812 posts

@Mardee, do you all use "snow" tires in the frozen north? I'm just curious because many years ago, I recall my dad (we lived in suburban St. Paul) switching in "snow" tires for winter. But, here in the metro, most people have been using "all weather tires" for years. I do recall that "snow" tires were really bad on ice or slick surfaces. I'm surprised that Germans would be using winter tires when they so rarely have snow, at least at the lower elevations.

I have a Subaru. We were sold when we saw many folks in Colorado using them. I personally think that its more about the car and AWD. We had a decent amount of snow yesterday and places to go. The Subaru with all weather tires handled it like a champ.

Posted by
6800 posts

Jules, I would double check your source for your conclusions about winter vs all weather tires. And I would suggest that the Germans would not publish and enforce those rules without proper scientific data to back them up. Up here in the even more frozen North, winter tires go on in November and come off around the end of March - or later in the Northern parts of the province.

Where we lived in Germany, not only did we need winter tires (and I mean we NEEDED them), we also had to carry chains because of the area we lived in. We had a white Christmas every year that we were there.

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