Battle of the Bulge
Weather Intelligence — December 1944
Hitler launched his Ardennes offensive counting on fog and low cloud to keep Allied aircraft on the ground. Follow the weather day by day at five stations in the southern half of the Bulge: the grey first week, the clear skies from 23 December, and the bitter cold of January. Pick a day below.
How the weather shaped the battle
When Hitler launched the Ardennes offensive on 16 December 1944, he was counting on the weather. Low cloud and fog would keep Allied aircraft on the ground while his armoured columns pushed for the Meuse. For the first week it worked: across the five stations in this tool, cloud cover averaged around three-quarters of the sky from 16 to 22 December.
Then, on 23 December, the sky cleared. From the 23rd to the 26th, cloud cover at every station was close to zero. Allied fighter-bombers returned to the battle, and supply drops began reaching the encircled garrison at Bastogne.
Clear skies brought the cold with them. On 29 of the 32 days, every reading at Bastogne was below freezing, and on the morning of 11 January every station recorded its lowest temperature of the battle: −23.7°C at Bastogne.
Bear in mind that these stations mostly cover the southern half of the Bulge. Further north the weather could be quite different: on 18 December the northern sector had excellent flying weather, while every station in this tool still recorded overcast skies.
Pick a day and a station above to see what the men on the ground were living through. If you’d like to stand where it happened, I guide Battle of the Bulge tours from Bastogne.
Weather data: 5 Ardennes stations, 16 Dec 1944 — 16 Jan 1945. Readings were recorded in °C; °F values are converted. “L” = light/trace precipitation.
Data provided by Charlie Stuart, author of the forthcoming book “Hold at All Cost”.
App by Joris Nieuwint — The Battlefield Explorer — www.thebattlefieldexplorer.com