Climate in Europe in mid/late March?

[uriel]

It's my 30th birthday in March and I've decided to escape the family get-togethers and parties and go for a very long bike ride. I'm leaving Newcastle and getting the Dover-Calais ferry and returning Amsterdam-Newcastle. I'm setting off on 9th March (ferry booked for 10th) and plan to be back before the month is out. In that time I'm planning on riding France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Czech, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland.

I've potted it out with GPS, checked mileages etc and I'm happy enough that I can cover the distance - I just want to ride, pretty much all day, every day. But what I never gave much thought to is the weather. I guess I've always (wrongly) simplified everything to north of uk is colder, south is warmer, but I guess we have the gulf stream keeping us warmer than mainland Europe?

I'm planning on camping in a tent each night, so now I'm starting to get a little concerned that it's going to be very cold and the roads are going to be snowy/icy which isn't ideal for motorcycling. I accept that the mountain passes will likely be closed, so am prepared to avoid them.

I've checked with sites like worldtravelguide.net and the info there suggests that no county I pass through should have temps near freezing, but this seems to be contradicted my most people I speak to.

Anyone have any real, first hand experience of these countries?

[mjrc]

i got caught once in switzerland in march (first week), by a sudden snowfall between bern and zurich in 2006. tooks us 8 hours to drive 150 miles or so. germany, italy and austria you will probably be ok.

[nigelfr]

I lived in the Netherlands for nearly 20 years and March could be chuffing cold, with a biting wind.

I suggest you Goggle each city with record minimum March temperature e.g. "Amsterdam record minimum temperature March"

The almanac here http://www.myforecast.com/bin/climate.m?city=50732... shows record and average lows, also days with snow and with lows below freezing.

[Puggit]

Was in my house in central France last March. Frost every morning. By and large over winter it is cooler there than the UK at night and warmer by day (stronger sun)

Remember the UK has a maritime climate, warmed up by the Atlantic. Central Europe has a continental climate, cooled down by Siberian winds at times.

[IanMorewood]

Been skiing in the alps before in April and I can tell you overnights can still reach -10 before you factor in wind chill.

[uriel]

Yeah, thanks for that. I don't like the idea of planning these things in advance, preferring to play it by ear and make it up as I go along, but it would appear I've ballsed up with this one.

I've e-mailed work to see about shifting my holidays back until June/July.

[Mandat]

The continental weather can be hit and miss around March time.

I drove to Poland last Easter (late March) and it was snowing pretty much all the way from the French/Belgian border.