Germany’s DWD national weather service has released the preliminary mean weather results for the country for March, 2018: “In summary a cold March, again snow in the north and east.”

Wintry 2018 spring start in Germany. Photo by P Gosselin.

The reason for the cold March, according to the DWD: “Germany was in a mostly dry, very cold easterly air pattern. Atlantic lows from the west could hardly make any headway.”

According to data collected from the country’s 2000 weather stations, Germany’s preliminary mean temperature for the first month of spring came in at only 2.5°C, which is 1.8°C below the 1981-2010 reference period mean.

The coldest treading recorded was -19.2°C occurring at Barth near Stralsund. March, 2018, was the second month in a row with below mean temperatures in Central Europe.

The following chart gives the mean temperature for each state (Source: DWD):