In lower altitudes, instead of masses of snow, there are green meadows and worries about plants that mistakenly think it's spring and are sprouting too early. January 2018 was in Germany 3.4°C warmer than the average for the 1981-2010 reference period (and 4.3°C warmer than the average for the 1961-1990 period), making it the sixth warmest January since records began in 1881. At 168% of average precipitation levels, it was also a very wet month. There was an exceptionally high level of precipitation, particularly in south-western Germany, which often fell as snow in the low mountain ranges and the Alps. In the southern Black Forest, some stations recorded more than 500 mm of monthly precipitation. For comparison: in the relatively dry, inner Alpine Ötztal, the annual precipitation is around 800mm.
A similar picture can be seen in Austria: temperatures have been measured here since 1796 and there have only been two Januaries that were warmer than January 2018, which was 3.8°C above the 1981-2010 average. The number of frost days in many regions of Austria in January has also never been so low, at least since records began. Similar to Germany, there was around 70% more precipitation than average in Austria. At low altitudes, most of this fell as rain, while at high altitudes it was known to fall as snow (with occasional rain events that briefly spoiled the skiing fun). The days with fresh snow and snow days (days with fresh snow and days with existing snow cover) were accordingly between 50 and 100% above average at higher altitudes (in Tyrol even more in some cases), and 50 to 100% below average at lower altitudes.
