Weather in Germany

German Climate

Germany’s climate is temperate and marine, with cold, cloudy winters and warm summers and in the south occasional warm föhn wind.
The greater part of Germany lies in the cool/temperate climatic zone in which humid westerly winds predominate.
In the northwest and the north, the climate is oceanic and rain falls all year round.
Winters here are relatively mild and summers comparatively cool.
In the east, the climate shows clear continental features; winters can be very cold for long periods, and summers can become very warm. Dry periods are often recorded.

In the centre and the south, there is a transitional climate that may be predominantly oceanic or continental, according to the general weather situation.
Winters are cool and summers warm, though maximum temperatures can exceed 30 °C for several days in a row during heat waves.
The warmest regions of Germany can be found in the southwest.
Here summers can be hot with many days exceeding 30 °C.

• Weather atlas gives a good overview of the climate per month
• Another good source of information by Region/Town is the Climatemps website. Here is an example of the weather data they have for Stuttgart

Towns with the most sunshine

Freiburg and Chemnitz are known as the towns with the most sunshine hours in Germany.
Looking for other sunny cities in Germany? You can see a comparison here.

You can also read more about coping with the lack of winter sunshine on our page about SAD (seasonal affective disorder)

Warmest cities in Germany

Frankfurt is the warmest city in the summer.
The city with the highest average temperature for 2019 was Köln-Stammheim. Offenbach am Main is also on the list.
Rostock is the coldest on average.

Most Rainfall per city

 Halle / Saale has the least rainfall. It also seldom rains in Erfurt, Berlin and Magdeburg – they still have little sunshine (3.8 to 4.4 hours/day).
According to Bild, A lot of rain falls in Oldenburg (1072 milliliters), Remscheid (942), Essen (931), Solingen (896) and Wuppertal (866).
This means that North Rhine-Westphalia is not only one of the regions with the poorest sunshine but also one of the rainiest regions.

Where to find the most Snow

The place with the most snow is the Zugspitze at an elevation of 3000m.
When it snows, it will be mostly on the mountain areas, although some of the lower-lying areas also do get snow.
The most snow can be expected during January and February.