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WEATHER

Passes close as snow strikes Swiss mountains

Winter made an early return to the Swiss Alps where residents awoke on Friday to find up to 80 centimetres of fresh snow at higher elevations after a cold front swept across the country.

Published: 11 October 2013 10:50 CEST
Passes close as snow strikes Swiss mountains
Flรผela Pass viewed from a car. Photo: YouTube/File

Meteo News reported from 40 to 80 centimetres of the white stuff at elevations above 2,000 metres in the southern, central and eastern Alps.

Snow also fell in the Jura Mountains with sub-zero temperatures at levels as low as 700 metres.

Strong winds gusting up to 114 kilometres an hour were reported at Monte Generoso in Ticino late Thursday, the ATS news agency said.

Windy conditions also hit Lugano, where gusts were clocked at 93 km/h, and Stabio (88 km/h), both in the canton of Ticino, while Neuchâtel reported winds of up to 80 km/h.

Heavy snow closed several mountain passes, including those at Flüela, San Bernardino and Splügen in the canton of Graubünden, all above 2,000 metres.

Tyre chains were required on many mountain routes as the freezing level dropped.

Meteo Swiss, the national weather office, is forecasting continuing cool and wet weather on Friday and Saturday with more snow in the Alps.

Warmer conditions are forecast across the country on Sunday, with mostly sunny skies and high temperatures of 16 expected in Zurich and Sion (Valais) and 14 in Geneva.

Milder temperatures are expected through the early part of next week.

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WEATHER

IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

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Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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