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Snow to follow Swiss dive into deep freeze

Temperatures plunged well below zero in may parts of Switzerland on Tuesday morning with La Brévine, in the canton of Neuchâtel, setting a record low for the year at minus 23.4C.

Published: 24 November 2015 11:03 CET

Snow to follow Swiss dive into deep freeze

Webcam view of lifts at Zermatt, where just eight percent of the ski area is open. Photo: Zermatt.ch

The drop in the mercury followed the first snow of the season in non-mountain areas of the country over the weekend, marking a reversal of Indian summer conditions lingering earlier last week.

Other regions where temperatures fell below minus 20C included Adermatt in the canton of Uri and Ulrichen in the canton of Valais.

Lows of minus 4C were recorded in Geneva, Basel and Zurich and highs on Tuesday were not forecast to reach above four degrees across the country, except for southern Ticino, MeteoSwiss, the national weather office said.

La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the canton of Neuchâtel, where it is expected to remain below zero until the weekend, registered a low of minus 12C.

An anticyclone spreading from the Atlantic Ocean to Central Europe was responsible for the clear skies and cold conditions, MeteoSwiss said.

Snow is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday in regions above 500 metres, bringing badly needed cover for mountain ski resorts with bare slopes.

Just seven ski stations are currently operating, including Zermatt in the canton of Valais and Les Diablerets in the canton of Vaud, which can rely on glacier pistes.

More than 15 others are planning to open this weekend but the majority are not scheduled to start the season until December, weather permitting.

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Will Switzerland be visited by 'Ice Saints' this year?

From May 11th to the 15th, a meteorological event takes place each year in Switzerland.

It “observes”, though admittedly not on scientific basis, a centuries-old weather phenomenon called “Ice Saints”.

What exactly is it?

As its name suggests, it is related to saints, as well as ice and frost.

The saints in question are St Mamertus, St Pancras, St Servatius and St Boniface.

According to a weather lore, once these Ice Saints have passed through Switzerland in the middle of May, frost will no longer pose a threat to farmers and their land.

As the official government meteorological service MeteoSwiss explains it, “spring frosts have been a regular occurrence for centuries, giving rise to the traditional belief that a blast of cold air often arrives in the middle of May. Over time, this piece of weather lore became known as the Ice Saints.”

Fact versus myth

You may be wondering whether the Ice Saints lore actually has basis in reality.

Records, which date back to 1965 and originate from the Geneva-Cointrin, Payerne, and Zurich-Kloten weather stations, “clearly show that, over the long-term average, frost directly above the soil is only a regular occurrence up until the middle of April”, MeteoSwiss says. “After that, the frequency with which ground frost occurs progressively declines to almost zero by the end of May.”

“We can conclude, therefore, that there is no evidence in Switzerland to confirm the Ice Saints as a period in May when ground frost is more common.”

However, MeteoSwiss does concede that “ground frost is nevertheless a regular occurrence throughout May as a whole…having occurred at least once or twice in May every year, and in around 40 percent of the years there were more than two days in May with ground frost.”

What about this year?

MeteoSwiss weather forecast for the next seven days indicates that, this year too, no frost will be present on the ground in mid-May.

In fact, temperatures through much of Switzerland will be in double digits, reaching between 18C and 25C, depending on the region.

You can see what to expect in your area, here.

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