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Indian summer settles over Swiss cantons

Temperatures hit record highs for November in Swiss mountain regions on Sunday as Switzerland experienced spring-like conditions that are forecast to continue for several days.

Published: 8 November 2015 22:11 CET
Indian summer settles over Swiss cantons
Autumn colours on path alongside Lake Geneva in Montreux (canton of Vaud). Photo: Malcolm Curtis/The Local

The mercury rose to more than 21C in Chur in the canton of Graubünden and Binningen in the canton of Basel-Country, the warmest places in the country.

Records were set in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel (20.4C), Crans-Montana in the canton of Valais (19C), Samedan in the canton of Graubünden (17.7C), Chasseral in the canton of Bern (16.9C) and Mount Pilatus straddling the cantons of Lucerne and Obwalden (15.7C).

“Today is a day of absolute records,” Roger Perret of MeteoNews told the ATS news agaency.

The mild weather is exceptional in Switzerland for this time of year, he said.

The cause of the warmer than usual conditions was a large high pressures system centred over Europe.

Perret said the situation had nothing to do with climate change.

“It’s a meteorological situation completely special,” he said.

“Next year could be totally different.”


MeteoSwiss, the national weather office, forecast slightly cooler weather for Monday and Tuesday but with warmer than average temperatures.

The thermometer should rise to 19 degrees in Sion (Valais), Lugano (Ticino) and Chur on Monday, the office said. 

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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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