The German weather service (DWD) is the national meteorological service for the Republic of Germany. Its functions are set down in a law of its own. Its main task is predicting the weather for the general public and also for individual users who can take advantage of this service free of charge.
In fact, it is impossible to change the weather. And ultimately there is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. Still it is important to know what the  weather will be like in the following days. Whether it will rain and whether one should take along an 2 umbrella on one’s trip – and that is actually a  relatively harmless case. Contrarily, predictions for agriculture, seafaring and aviation are of great significance. It is important to know that one can spare  the scant water reserves with which to water the fields because rain is  expected. Dry weather is the prerequisite to harvest wheat and so it is  important to know whether one has to squeeze in an extra late night or Sunday shift or not. Impending hail can even be averted by "vaccinating" the  clouds.

These are only a few examples for the significance of weather predictions. Even more precise predictions are required for seafaring and aviation, as  routes and altitudes depend on them. Storm warnings are not only important for fishing but are of general interest – such as giving people the chance to bring their garden furniture to safety before the storm. Likewise the pollen warning service – another service that the German Weather Service provides – is a great help for people suffering from allergies; or predicting really hot days so that elderly people who would suffer from the heat can adjust their plans.

To be able to meet these needs, the German Weather Service has a dense meteorological measuring network in Germany, including approximately 170 weather stations of which more than half are staffed and which deliver data, as do the 2400 voluntary weather watchers. Of course the data delivered from weather satellites is also applied. The weather data is processed with high powered super computers in order to be able to make predictions that are as accurate as can be.

The German Weather Service, however, is not the only provider of weather predictions. It competes with privately organized service providers. Due to the generally available weather data today it is easy to obtain the weather for vacation regions for the near future via the internet.