In the morning, snow continued to fall in the Rhineland. From the morning onwards, the precipitation subsided. After the snow during the night, additional centimetres of snow fell in the first half of the day on Monday. In addition to snow, sleet also fell and it could become slippery due to slush or thin fresh snow cover. Temperatures will rise just above freezing during the day. It is expected to remain dry in the afternoon.

The first snow has caused only a few problems in Bonn. "Today it was more slush than snow. The first people to contact us when there are problems are our colleagues from the Bonn public utility company when the buses can't run," says Bonnorange spokesman Jérôme Lefèvre. According to the Stadtwerke, only one bus had "struggled a bit" on Oberkasseler Straße in the morning until the gritting service was sent past. The police spoke of a normal day. "When snow falls, Bonn is always a bit busier," said spokesman Simon Rott. There had been weather-related interventions, including for example a car that skidded in Muffendorf and damaged parked vehicles. In Rheinbach, which is also part of the authority's area of responsibility, a lorry got stuck and blocked traffic.

The municipal company Bonnorange, which is also responsible for winter services, was working priority level 1 on Monday. "These are dangerous spots on roads with important traffic, for example immediate hospital access roads and uphill stretches of public transport," explains Lefèvre. A total of six large gritting vehicles - three in Bonn, two in Bad Godesberg and one in Beuel - and three smaller ones for the cycle paths were deployed for these roads. "In addition, our street cleaning crews gritted pedestrian crossings and in the city centre on their tours as needed."

During the winter months, Bonnorange keeps a daily eye on the weather forecast and issues a message to all staff involved as to whether there will be a winter service call-out the next day. "We also have an on-call team on duty that can provide information in the event of a sudden snowfall." As was the case last year, up to 22 vehicles can be upgraded and deployed for winter services with snow ploughs and gritters. During the winter service, the employees who are otherwise responsible for street cleaning drive special missions in the specially equipped clearing and gritting vehicles. "Where we can't get to with our vehicles, we clear and grit by hand," says Lefèvre. There are no staff shortages.

According to the forecast, the weather will remain similarly cold for the rest of the week, with maximum temperatures at low altitudes of five degrees. On Tuesday, further light snow is possible at higher altitudes, and light rain may fall at lower altitudes, the DWD said. It may become slippery in places.

In the night leading to Wednesday, the cloud cover will remain mostly closed. There will be some rain in some areas and snow in the mountains. During the day, it will remain mostly cloudy with the possibility of rain.

The current weather situation in Bonn and the region can be found at wetter.ga.de and the outlook in our weather forecast.

(Original text: Nicolas Ottersbach; Translation: Mareike Graepel)