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WEATHER

Autumn brings rare ‘tornado’ to Lake Zurich

People looking out onto Lake Zurich on Saturday morning witnessed a rare natural spectacle as a waterspout resembling a tornado formed on the lake.

Published: 7 September 2015 09:10 CEST
Autumn brings rare ‘tornado’ to Lake Zurich
The waterspout formed over Lake Zurich on Saturday morning. Photo: John Appenzeller

Unlike real tornados, however, waterspouts can form in weak winds, said Swiss weather office SRF Meteo, which reported the sighting.

At the time the waterspout was seen, winds in the area were between ten and 23 kilometres an hour.

This natural phenomenon forms when layers of instable cold air make contact with a body of warm water, said SRF Meteo.

The cold air heats up over the lake and starts to rise. Depending on the wind conditions, this rising air starts to turn, accelerating to form a whirlwind.

On Saturday morning the temperature of Lake Zurich was 22 degrees, said SRF Meteo, while the air temperature was around 13 degrees.

 

Though rare in Switzerland, waterspouts like these are mostly seen at this time of year when autumnal air temperatures combine with warm water.

The country experienced a distinct autumnal feel over the weekend, with ground frost at low altitude for the first time since the spring, said MeteoNews.

Temperatures fell to around zero in many places, with -1 in Zurich-Kloten, -0.6 in Sion in the canton of Valais and -4 in La Brévine in the Jura, known as the coldest place in Switzerland.

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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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