road conditions / december
 

Folks, I am going to be in Germany in December and wanted to do a road trip Hamburg-Dusseldorf- Munich over two days.
Having done a great road trip last year on a 525d from sixt from Hamburg-Berlin-Kempten-Munich, I'd very much like to relive the pleasure of driving on the autobahn.

However not sure about weather / snow in Hamburg at that time of the year.

Would welcome opinion from those based in northern germany.

Thanks.

I hope you don´t mind an opinion from someone not all the way up north:).
Hamburg does hardly see any snow at all. General rule: The farther south the more snowy or hazardous road conditions might get. However, December should be rather safe compared to Jan/Feb.

F.R.

It can snow and be cold or it can be wet, gray and not so cold. Winter in Germany is not a constant thing. In general winter is mild and rainy. Only in higher areas you have real chance of snow. So driving conditions won't be perfect but not bad either. Make sure the car you rent has snow/winter tires or at least all-season tires on it. If you decide to drive into mountain regions (there are none around Hamburg) but still if you want to do that make sure to have snow chains with you since sometimes snow chains are mandatory on certain roads.

Not sure where you are from, but this is like asking what the road conditions would be like driving from Boston to DC in winter. The answer is that they could be covered with snow or it could be bright sunshine or it could be absolutley pissing down with rain.

I lived in the Hamburg area for many years, and still spend a lot of time there now.

As others have said... it's entirely unpredictable.

All I can really say is that you will usually get some snow some between about November and April (yes, April - I remember waking up to a thick layer of snow one day in mid-April 1996). Some years there is a lot. Some years there is hardly any at all. Some years you get snow in November and Spring-like days in December and January. Some years it's the other way round. I don't remember many years when snow has closed roads or railway lines, but it does happen (it happened in 1979 when I was at college in Hamburg...)

So, as others have said... anything is possible.

Many thanks.

For a normal year? It is more like DC in winter. And on the Autobahn? There are a handful of days a year with problems. At the utmost.

I don't remember any recent winters when Northern Germany did NOT have a (usually short) spell of snow and ice. I was there in the first week of January this year and there was ice drifting down the Elbe and the Maschsee in Hannover had been turned into a temporary ice rink. And while main roads normally get cleared fairly quickly after a snowfall it's not much fun driving while it's actually snowing.

So, as I said before, anything is possible.

Last February 17 I drove from Munich via Nürnberg and Magdeburg to Hannover. There was heavy icerain most of the way but the roads were clear (not on the A96 Munich-Lindau, though).
The car rental equipped me with an Audi A4 2.0 T Cabrio :confused: with winter tires so all went very well in the end. Never felt unsafe :cool:
So, anything can happen with the weather, but on the motorway you should be ok ^

It really depends on the situation. If there is heavy ice-rain or snow-fall, then road service might be very busy. Hence it is possible that there will be lots of snow on the Autobahn.

I remember that I had once one out of three lanes free of snow between Frankfurt and Würzburg a few days before Christmas.

Additionally, there are usually major problems when first snow of the season comes. It is always surprising how little some drivers are prepared (technically & mentally) for winter conditions during the first days of snowy road conditions. :mad:

To be on the safe(r) side concerning the roads and the cars, you should consider to book a car with snow / winter tyres.

Speed limits on winter/snow tires
 

As I just stated in another thread: especially in fall, winter or spring, you have to pay attention what tires are mounted on the car. Winter tires often can only stand a certain speed (usually 160 or 180 kph, depending on the car, i'm not familiar what the car rental companies will use). In this case you will find a little speed-limit sticker on the dashboard. Sports cars might have class H tires (limit: 210 kph) or better. (KLICK ME and scroll down a little)

Usually there is no problem driving on the Autobahn when its snowing. Easy as. As Flying Lawyer said, there will be only a handful of days per year where traffic on the Autobahn is really affected by snow.


Can you still book cars without winter tyres?

At least Sixt asks you to preebook and to pay for winter tyres, what I normally do not do. At least at the airport stations they have plenty of inventory and in the event the car they assigned to me does not have winter tires I simply ask for a different car (if I require winter tyres). I actually never paid for these.

When I book a car @ Sixt through my company, winter tires are automatically included during winter season.
I am familiar with the stickers referring to the max. speed for your tires, but I never had any of these in a Sixt car (also compact class). What's more, I never had problems with the tires :D
I think they only mount better quality tires (H or V; z for sports cars) nowadays :cool: