Being right on the Rhine river, the city of Bonn and vicinity does not get much snow during the winter. Some years there isn’t any snow at all along this part of the Rhine. This winter looks like it may be an exception.

The area around Bonn is considered part of the "Cologne Bay", a geographic area where the Rhine river makes a bit of a jog on its way to the Netherlands. The weather here is usually warmer than in most other parts of Germany. With the Rhine nearby and being not too far from the coast and its Gulf stream influence, our winters are pretty mild. Sometimes it doesn’t even snow near the Rhine. Forecasters have predicted a colder winter this year, though. In late November a snow and ice storm near Münster – about 90 minutes north of here by car – resulted in downed transmission lines and power outages that lasted four days, affecting as many as 250,000 people. After two days of light snow, we now have some snow on the ground here, as you can see in the view from our small office in Mondorf, across the river from Bonn. It is supposed to remain cold and snowy up to the last day of 2005.