In the morning rush hour, snow and ice have caused many problems and delays in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. On the commuter routes there are some "significant traffic jams", said a spokesman for the police in Dusseldorf. Many motorists drove off very early. However, there were no serious accidents in his area, the spokesman said.

According to WDR traffic jam detectors, morning traffic throughout NRW temporarily stagnated for a total length of approximately 400 kilometers. There were more than a thousand traffic accidents in NRW from Wednesday morning until Thursday morning due to snow and ice, the police said. 14 people were seriously injured and 63 slightly injured. The resulting property damage estimates the police to more than three million euros.

Because of the snowfall in the morning for about two hours all takeoffs and landings were canceled at the airport Cologne / Bonn. According to the airport, the flight operations are now running again: "Nevertheless, there are irregularities in the timetable as a result of the interruption during the course of the day." The current flight status is experienced by passengers via the websites of the airlines. "

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Weather in Germany: snow and ice in the west

The Police Headquarters Westpfalz in Rhineland-Palatinate reported 22 weather-related accidents in the morning, eleven of them in Kaiserslautern alone. A police spokeswoman in Trier said: "We have some trucks here that are transversal."

On Thursday, in Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland fall again up to five inches of snow, as the German Weather Service announced. Especially in the morning is expected to snowfall. During the day it will be sunny in certain areas. In the night of Friday it should snow again, in the south, the flakes can later pass into sleet. Partly it can also come to freezing rain with increased smoothness.

According to the German Weather Service, the icy weather is still continuing in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the afternoon and evening, there should only be some snow from Münsterland to East Westphalia. The maximum temperatures are according to the forecast between one and three degrees. In the night of Friday it can come again to light snowfall with smoothness.