Germany gets endless sunshine at 25C next week. Not that this hasn't happened before and 30C days are not unheard of, but this year it basically went from March winter to April summer.
Can't really tell how this relates to climate change and sea ice, but it certainly feels "not normal".
I have a hunch that we do not give tropical/low-latitude snowpack enough credit for its sensible effects on our weather due to albedo feedback.
This is probably relevant to Germany because of the Atlas Mountains. I suspect that when significant snowcover exists over this region, it "anchors" troughing over Europe, and allows more moisture to be scooped up by incoming systems from the west.
Without the "anchor" of Atlas snowpack, the track drifts substantially north, with the mountains of Portugal and Spain another "bulwark". But they are nowhere near as effective at allowing cold airmasses into Europe as the Atlas Mountains are.
On a similar note, I suspect Hawaii acts in the same capacity for the standing ridge we see develop over the Rockies/Alaska. This is increasingly due to more MOISTURE, not cold, as the volcano tops in these areas are generally cold enough for snow, just not moist enough.
But when it DOES snow, especially in fall/spring months, the impact is especially outsized due to the amount of solar radiation reflected at 19.82N, and the lack of other "weather-generating" geographic features between the West Coast, Hawaii, and Asia.
http://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2010/aug/ancient-hawaiian-glaciers-reveal-clues-global-climate-impacts"However, the new research found that the glacier on Mauna Kea began to re-advance to almost its ice age size about 15,400 years ago. That coincides almost exactly with a major slowdown of what scientists call the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, or AMOC, in the North Atlantic Ocean."