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After the snow chaos on the A2 on Tuesday night, the Bielefeld police warned against using the motorway on Wednesday night.

“The road surface is still largely snow-covered and icy.

The use and effectiveness of grit is limited by the low temperatures, ”said a police report on Tuesday afternoon.

There is still the risk that the traffic could come to a standstill in places due to the weather.

Heavy snowfall had once again caused chaos on many highways in Germany.

The A2 was hit particularly hard: the traffic jam near Bielefeld triggered by heavy snowfall had not cleared by early Tuesday morning.

In the freezing cold, the driver and passengers spent the whole night and thus more than twelve hours in their stuck vehicles.

No getting through: Autobahn 2 near Bielefeld

Source: dpa / Festim Beqiri

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As the police in Minden reported, numerous emergency calls were received from broken-down drivers during the night.

"Some had run out of fuel, some just wanted information about when it was finally going to continue," said a police spokesman for Minden-Lübbecke.

Officials were on duty at the Porta Westfalica truck stop on the A2 because it was completely overcrowded.

"It must have gone haywire," said the spokesman.

The traffic jam also affected the surrounding streets.

The traffic in the direction of Bad Oeynhausen was backed up so much that a tunnel had to be closed because of the increased exhaust gas values.

Numerous drivers tried to avoid the traffic jam there.

In the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, the police counted around 900 weather-related missions within 24 hours.

From Monday to Tuesday mornings (6 a.m. each time), she drove nationwide to around 800 accidents on snowy and slippery roads.

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Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer continues to expect adverse effects from the extreme winter weather with snow and ice in large parts of Germany.

The CSU politician said: “In many regions of Germany the situation is gradually beginning to calm down.

It may take a while before everything goes back to normal.

Depending on the route and area, impairments remain. "

That's why it will jerk for a few days even when the snowfall subsides.

“The snow goes, the frost stays.

Everyone should be prepared for that. "

For the Baltic Sea, the meteorologists of the German Weather Service (DWD) predicted heavy snowfall with drifting snow on Tuesday.

Official storm warnings were therefore in effect for Ostholstein.

On the coasts it is windy to stormy.

However, this also led to natural spectacles that are well worth seeing: bizarre ice sculptures formed on piers on the island of Rügen (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania).

A seagull sits on an ice-covered lamp at the Rügen pier

Source: dpa / Bernd Wüstneck

No relaxation in Saxony-Anhalt

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In Saxony-Anhalt, after heavy snowfall with ice and frost, no relaxation is in sight.

On the contrary.

People will have to be prepared for the freezing cold in the next two weeks.

"Until Sunday, severe permafrost, which means permanently below minus ten degrees, must be expected," said Cathleen Hickmann, a meteorologist at the DWD.

In the night of Wednesday, local temperatures of minus 25 degrees were expected.

Permafrost will prevail in the coming week.

It stays smooth because of the thick snow cover.

The police warned of serious damage to health when people are exposed to the cold.

A 69-year-old man was found lifeless in the snow next to his tractor in the Börde district.

The investigators assume that the man is frozen, the police said.

The son reported the man as missing on Monday.

On the same day, emergency services found the man on a road between Bregenstedt and Bundesstraße 1 about 20 meters from his undamaged tractor.

Further frosty temperatures in Thuringia

The residents of Thuringia also have to be prepared for winter weather and related problems on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Education, schools in some districts and cities are still closed on Tuesday.

For example, schools in Erfurt, Weimar, Jena and Gera should not open.

On Monday there were no classes in the entire state due to the weather.

A high blanket of snow lay over large parts of the country, so that train and bus traffic was also severely restricted.

In the closed schools, there is no emergency care and no face-to-face lessons for groups of students for whom this is possible under the current Corona rules.

Meanwhile, the Deutsche Post DHL Group announced that it would be delivering letters and parcels again on Tuesday if the weather and road conditions improve.

Because of the large amount of snow, delivery was waived across the board in the Free State on Monday, according to the company, with a few exceptions.

Saxony: Hope for relaxation in public transport after snow chaos

After the heavy snowfall with drifts, the transport companies in Saxony hope that the situation will normalize.

“The main routes in particular are cleared of snow at night.

We also have clearing vehicles from the city cleaning service in use, ”said the spokesman for the Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe, Marc Backhaus.

Meter by meter, the tracks should be cleared.

"We hope for an emergency operation on Tuesday, but normal operation is not yet in sight," explained Backhaus.

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In addition to the snowfall, the biggest problem was the strong wind, which had caused strong winds on Monday.

As a result, all tram and bus traffic in the trade fair city had been stopped, and the regional buses did not run in the region.

Even in Dresden and Chemnitz, public transport passengers cannot yet expect regular operation.

"We hope for stability in operations, but there will still be delays on some connections," emphasized Falk Lösch from the Dresden transport company.

It takes a lot of work to free the tracks from the enormous amounts of snow.

The weather forecast makes the transport companies confident.

According to the DWD, no new snow should come in the next few days.

However, the white splendor is retained, because it will be extremely frosty until the weekend.

During the day the temperatures hardly rose above minus seven degrees, at night double-digit values ​​below zero can be expected.

It could be particularly cold on Wednesday night.

If it clears up, local severe frost with minus 20 degrees is possible.

"If you get into a skid, you should consider three things"

Thomas Müther from ADAC Nordrhein advises anyone who currently has to get into their car despite extreme weather conditions, shouldn't just prepare well.

Drivers should also know how to react if they suddenly skid despite being careful when driving.

Source: WORLD / Felicia Pochhammer