"The weather records confirm what many people have probably already guessed: Snow in the lowlands on Christmas days is now almost as uncommon as Father Christmas in the chimney," the Bonn Weather Service reports. The last time there was snow in Bonn at Christmas was in 2010. "And by Rhenish standards, it was very abundant: seven to ten centimetres were measured. The 16 other years are all green (or slushy grey-brown) in the data records," writes the weather service with a view to the weather since 2006.

In recent years, the average temperature has not allowed for a white Christmas: According to weather experts, the average daily temperature for 24, 25 and 26 December over the past 17 years was 5.6 degrees. The warmest day was Christmas Eve with an average of 6.6 degrees and the coldest was Boxing Day with 4.5 degrees. The average daily maximum between 2006 and 2022 was 7.4 degrees, the average minimum was 3.8 degrees.

The warmest Christmas Day was observed by Donnerwetter.de in Bonn on 26 December 2005: it was 15.2 degrees. The coldest Christmas Day in Bonn was on 26 December 2010 with -7.2 degrees. But such cold days have become a rarity in and around Bonn in recent years - some people are happy about it, others are longing for crisp, cold holidays. The weather experts have little hope that their wish will be fulfilled this year: "White Christmases are becoming increasingly rare in the lowlands of Germany."

Thomas Kesseler-Lauterkorn from the German Weather Service (DWD) climate office in Essen knows that when it snows depends in particular on the general weather situation over Central Europe and which air masses reach the Rhineland. " Of course, the air mass has to be cold enough, i.e. of polar origin," he says. In addition, there must be consistently negative temperatures, especially on the ground, and weather conditions in which it rains. "Such weather conditions are of course most likely to occur in the winter months," says the expert.

Another look at the past shows that snow can also fall in the autumn months. If you only include snow cover of more than one centimetre, the last time it snowed in the Bonn region at the beginning of November was in 2004. Back then, there were six centimetres of snow on the local roads on 10 November. However, according to Kesseler-Lauterkorn, it is very rare for it to snow at the beginning of November. Before 2004, the last time it snowed in the Bonn region at the beginning of November was in 1966. On 4 November, there was one to three centimetres of snow back then, says the weather expert. "In the Cologne-Bonn Bay area in particular, the first onset of winter with snow is not on the cards until the end of November at the earliest and everything has to be right in terms of the weather for it to snow. That's the exception rather than the rule," he explains.

Original text: Wiebke Elges; Translation: Jean Lennox