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How can snow-covered cherry blossoms in March be a sign of global warming? In Freiburg on the western slope of the Black Forest, snow in March is not all that unusual. But this last winter has been the warmest winter since weather recordings started in Germany in 1901. So this year we have had an early start of Spring, with all the trees in full bloom: cherries, magnolias, almonds, forysthia, ... thus the snow in late March came as a bit of a shock.
The panorama is located just outside the Japanese Garden in Seepark (Lake Park). This beautiful garden is a generous gift of Freiburg's Japanese twin town Matsuyama. But due to snowfall the garden remained closed that day and I could only take the shot outside the garden. In the panorama, you can see the closed wooden gates.
On a "normal" day in Spring the place outside the garden would be filled with promenaders, joggers and mothers with little children in buggies and on tricycles. They all avoided the cold on that windy day and stayed indoors. Only a lonely blackbird is searching the place for breadcrumbs.
These last few weeks our politicians kept telling us that we have to get used to a change of climate in Germany. Not only will the overall temperature rise, but in the South-West we will experience a more humid climate, as there will be far more clouds coming from the Atlantic Ocean.
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