Frankfurt Christmas Market: how cold and wet are the evenings?

Frankfurt Christmas Market (from the Monday before the first Sunday of Advent to 22 December): over 35 seasons from 1991 to 2025, 19% of market evenings (17:00–21:00) had frost, 22% were wet (≥ 0.5 mm) and 5% had snowfall; at least one snowy evening came in 19 of 35 seasons. Source: ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus).

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Data updated: 2 November 2026 · Sources, licences and data

Calculated 3 November 2026 · weather: ERA5 1991–2025 · edition dates checked 2 November 2026

19%evenings with frost

22%wet evenings (≥ 0.5 mm)

5%evenings with snowfall

19 / 35seasons with a snowy evening

3.9 °Caverage evening temperature

Evenings by week of the season

Week	Frost	Wet	Mean
1	13%	18%	4.7 °C
2	18%	23%	4.0 °C
3	23%	21%	3.3 °C
4	22%	23%	3.7 °C
5	26%	30%	3.0 °C

Frankfurt Christmas Market is the mildest of the site's ten markets: you will need an umbrella here more than mittens. Wet evenings come round more often than frosty ones, snow does not fall every season, and towards the end of the market the weather turns noticeably worse.

Rain, frost and rare snow

Frost lands on just 19% of evenings, half as often as in Munich (38%), while 22% of evenings are wet. The average evening temperature is 3.9 °C. Snow on at least one evening occurred in only 19 of the 35 seasons; the other 16 got by without it. The extremes are wide: in 2010 there was snowfall on 11 of 31 evenings at an average of −0.3 °C, while in 2015 there was not a single evening with frost and an average of 7.2 °C. The other markets are listed in the section.

2026 and the final weeks

The market runs from 23 November to 22 December 2026: Mon–Sat 10–21, Sun 11–21. It closes earlier than many, but the last week is still the least pleasant: frost climbs from 13% of evenings in the first week to 26%, and wet evenings from 18% to 30%. This is the climate of 35 seasons from the ERA5 reanalysis, not a forecast (methodology).

Seasons

evenings with frost (Seasons) · seasons with a snowy evening

Year	Dates	Frost	Wet	Snowfall	Mean
2025	24 November – 22 December	1 / 29	6 / 29	0 / 29	6.0 °C
2024	25 November – 22 December	2 / 28	6 / 28	0 / 28	5.3 °C
2023	27 November – 22 December	3 / 26	10 / 26	2 / 26	4.3 °C
2022	21 November – 22 December	10 / 32	8 / 32	0 / 32	2.8 °C
2021	22 November – 22 December	4 / 31	6 / 31	2 / 31	3.6 °C
2020	23 November – 22 December	2 / 30	6 / 30	0 / 30	4.3 °C
2019	25 November – 22 December	1 / 28	9 / 28	1 / 28	6.2 °C
2018	26 November – 22 December	1 / 27	6 / 27	1 / 27	6.0 °C
2017	27 November – 22 December	2 / 26	6 / 26	2 / 26	3.7 °C
2016	21 November – 22 December	9 / 32	2 / 32	0 / 32	3.5 °C
2015	23 November – 22 December	0 / 30	5 / 30	1 / 30	7.2 °C
2014	24 November – 22 December	0 / 29	8 / 29	0 / 29	5.1 °C
2013	25 November – 22 December	4 / 28	3 / 28	0 / 28	3.9 °C
2012	26 November – 22 December	7 / 27	11 / 27	5 / 27	2.9 °C
2011	21 November – 22 December	0 / 32	7 / 32	0 / 32	5.1 °C
2010	22 November – 22 December	16 / 31	12 / 31	11 / 31	−0.3 °C
2009	23 November – 22 December	9 / 30	6 / 30	3 / 30	4.2 °C
2008	24 November – 22 December	4 / 29	5 / 29	2 / 29	2.9 °C
2007	26 November – 22 December	9 / 27	5 / 27	0 / 27	3.6 °C
2006	27 November – 22 December	0 / 26	4 / 26	0 / 26	7.0 °C
2005	21 November – 22 December	5 / 32	6 / 32	3 / 32	2.6 °C
2004	22 November – 22 December	14 / 31	5 / 31	2 / 31	1.8 °C
2003	24 November – 22 December	6 / 29	6 / 29	0 / 29	4.4 °C
2002	25 November – 22 December	9 / 28	3 / 28	0 / 28	3.1 °C
2001	26 November – 22 December	8 / 27	6 / 27	1 / 27	3.0 °C
2000	27 November – 22 December	4 / 26	6 / 26	0 / 26	6.5 °C
1999	22 November – 22 December	6 / 31	9 / 31	3 / 31	4.1 °C
1998	23 November – 22 December	11 / 30	4 / 30	4 / 30	1.7 °C
1997	24 November – 22 December	4 / 29	9 / 29	4 / 29	3.2 °C
1996	25 November – 22 December	9 / 28	7 / 28	2 / 28	2.1 °C
1995	27 November – 22 December	12 / 26	3 / 26	2 / 26	1.1 °C
1994	21 November – 22 December	1 / 32	3 / 32	0 / 32	6.4 °C
1993	22 November – 22 December	10 / 31	13 / 31	0 / 31	3.0 °C
1992	23 November – 22 December	2 / 30	4 / 30	0 / 30	5.4 °C
1991	25 November – 22 December	11 / 28	5 / 28	1 / 28	1.3 °C

How to read these numbers

Season window: from the Monday before the first Sunday of Advent to 22 December, as described in Wikipedia (de): Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt; we applied this rule to every season 1991–2025 as a climate window — past opening dates were not checked year by year.
ERA5 is a reanalysis on a 0.25° grid (about 25 km): it counts slightly more light-rain days than nearby weather stations (by about 5–7 percentage points) and gives daytime highs about 1–2.5 °C below station readings, so real hot days were hotter than shown here.

„beginnt frühestens am Montag vor dem Ersten Advent und endet immer am 22“ — Wikipedia (de): Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt

Dates and sources

Coordinates: 50.114, 8.680; ERA5 cell centred at 50.00, 8.75 (average ground height of the cell 161 m).

How we calculate