Overview
- Large parts of the country spent Thursday’s holiday with frequent showers and brief thunderstorms, with highs of 10 to 16 degrees Celsius and gusts near 60 to 70 km/h forecast by the weather service.
- The German Weather Service issued alerts across about 300 counties and cities and advised people to seek shelter, avoid open water, and secure loose items.
- Snow returned to the Alps above roughly 1,500 meters, where the DWD expected 5 to 20 centimeters and up to 25 centimeters in the windward Berchtesgadener Alps.
- Forecasters see a gradual easing into the weekend with brighter spells by Sunday, and some model runs point to a warmer Pentecost though confidence is still limited.
- Meteorologists link the setup to a North Atlantic block that channels polar maritime air into Central Europe, a pattern often tied to the mid‑May “Ice Saints” cold snap.