Well....there are three types of winter that you can experience in Germany.
First, there's winter-lite. I'd describe it as minimum snowfall (never more than 3 inches or 7.5 cm), with minus-temperatures at night limited to mostly minus-5 C (23 F). In the past decade, I'd say that we've had two years like that in the Rhine Valley region. I often measure the harshness by the marginal amount of road-salt that I put out on the sidewalk. Last winter, in my central region....was a winter-lite situation.
Second, there's the average winter. I'd describe it as 3 inches or 7.5 cm...on up to 8 inches or 20 cm...of snow. You usually get a week or two of full blast arctic weather....meaning at night it gets down to minus-14 C (7 F). Roads are passable and the worst you can say is that there's five days (combined) where bus traffic through the village is suspended because of conditions.
Then, there's the ultra-harsh winter. In the past thirty years....I'd say there's been four of them (this year is apparently one of them). You might see three or four snowfalls where there's 12 inches (30 cm) or more, with a arctic front coming up behind it and keeping the snow frozen for two weeks or more. The German road departments, the Bahn, and Airports....aren't geared to really handle this. I might go through four buckets of road salt in a serious winter like this.
The other factor to this....is that various regions might have a rough period, where another region of the country is moderate. Presently (today)....there's to be heavy snow to occur in Bavaria, and in the extreme north of the country.
To say these are examples of global climate change? No....it's an example of the jet stream.....bringing moist conditions with a second front exiting from the north into the south.
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