FRANKFURT. The Frankfurt police have warned citizens about the risks they can run today by posting a nice “vintage” gif on X/Twitter showing a group of people advancing cautiously on the snow throwing salt in front of them, with the warning: you can see for yourself: it snows and often there is ice under the snow. Be careful if you go out today.” After yesterday in which half of Germany was brought to its knees by freezing, with the major airports, Frankfurt and Munich, having to cancel over half of their flights, icy roads everywhere with accidents and people ending up in hospital due to falls, trains and public transport services suspended and schools closed, the country’s problem today is snow.
Half of Germany is on its knees due to the exceptional snowfall, but there are also those who are happy about it
Lots, as the German Meteorological Service announced: “fresh snowstorms” of up to 30 cm within 24 hours. «Persistent and sometimes heavy snowfall, especially from the Eifel area and from the Cologne area to Thuringia». But the white blanket can also cover Saarland, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Saxony. The same service advised motorists to bring with them, when traveling by car, warm clothes and blankets, hot drinks and food, as well as always having a sufficiently full tank. Because situations like last night can always arise in which the A3 motorway remained partially closed in both directions due to snow and ice for hours starting from 6pm.
According to police estimates, around 2000 people were stranded in cars and trucks, and in some places the rescue services were only able to move by quad or on foot.
Queues with motorists and truck drivers blocked, even for hours, even on the A3, A5 and A7 motorways. In Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse, queues of up to 50 kilometers were recorded, the police reported. In most cases, one lane was closed, meaning traffic could move slowly on the others. Many people have been injured in accidents, but there have also been fatal accidents.
The interventions of the firefighters, the Civil Protection and the Red Cross were fundamental. In Baden-Württemberg the situation remained critical this morning due to ice on the road surface, around twenty accidents were recorded on the A5 between Rastatt and Baden-Baden: vehicles began to skid and crashed into the guardrail or other cars. Police then partially closed the highway.
In Saarland the police had to intervene in more than 100 road accidents this morning. Near Trier there was a traffic jam on the A64 because heavy traffic was banned from entering Luxembourg: queued trucks were redirected to car parks. Even today, German Railways has prepared its customers for inconvenience by announcing delays and cancellations in regional and long-distance transport throughout Germany. And as a precaution, even today the maximum speed of ICEs was limited to 200 kilometers per hour.
After hundreds of flights canceled yesterday due to ice on the runways, activity has resumed almost normally at Munich airport. The one at Frankfurt airport was more difficult, where this morning 300 flights were canceled due to the snow and ice storm, then operations resumed regularly. In numerous locations in the various Lands, schools remained closed today too.