If you’re travelling to a Mediterranean country it’s relatively easy to guess what climate you’re going to encounter. Going further north? Yes, also quite predictable. But what about going sideways, hopping over the Northern Sea and visiting Germany, what’s the weather than you can expect?

Well, it’s quite diverse, to be fair. As we’re on the mainland, our weather’s quite different to the one we have here in the UK – at least in some parts. And really, what you’ll encounter absolutely depends on when and where you want to visit our vibrant country.

In general, Germany is in the temperate, rainy climate zone. That’s the same that the UK is in – and on paper, we do seem to have a very similar average annual temperature (10.88°C for Germany, 10.14° for the UK), but as it’s true for the British Isles, it does very much depend on where you measure.

Visiting the North

The only coast we have in Germany is in the north, bordering both to the Northern Sea and the Baltic Sea. The weather here is as British as it gets, as we have the same mild maritime air colliding with colder continental air masses – which means we have a lot of fluctuating temperatures and quite a lot of rain, wind and storm. It’s so windy, constantly, that our perception of what is indeed a storm has become absolutely insane to anyone who’s not from the north. It is, and I quote a northern weather proverb: “Sturm ist erst, wenn die Schafe keine Locken mehr haben” – it’s only considered a storm when the sheep no longer have curls.

What you’ll encounter here is a lot of non-weather, how I like to call it. You know, the typical white sky. Nothing, just white sky. But I am selling the north short, as it’s an amazing place. Hamburg is one of my favourite cities and I can only recommend visiting it. Just bring a rain coat.

As for temperatures, again, it’s pretty much the same as the UK, especially the north east and north west. Northern Germany has mild seasons – it’s almost like there’s a lot of spring and a lot of autumn but not a lot of everything else.

Weather in the rest of Germany

Yes, I do split Germany into North and rest. Fight me. But honestly, that’s really all there is, because the further south you get (and it doesn’t have to be much, just away from the coast), the climate gets way more continental and the seasons way more distinct. You’ll get hotter summers (and when I say hot, I mean hot – we’re taking temperatures up to 35-40°C over the last years) and colder winters compared to the north. As we start having some mountain ranges going south, you’ll have some lovely places that’ll be covered in snow, ideal if you’re a winter enthusiast. Or just like to look at pretty landscapes.

But yes – even if we don’t have the classic beaches (we got lovely lakes, though) and aren’t necessarily considered a, well, holiday country, the weather in Germany is quite holidayesque ^{(that word looks funny)} in the summer time. But I can recommend the spring and autumn as well, as the foliage in both seasons is fantastic – especially when fruit trees start to bloom or the stunning forests we have turn all hues of amber and gold.

Man, did I already say that Germany’s a really beautiful country?

[Picture by Paul Pastourmatzis – thank you!]