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WEATHER

Icy bise wind causes travel chaos in western Switzerland

Winds of up to 140km/hr brought already chilly temperatures down even further in French-speaking Switzerland on Tuesday, disrupting trains and traffic and causing ferry services on Lake Geneva to be cancelled.

Published: 18 January 2017 09:01 CET
Icy bise wind causes travel chaos in western Switzerland
The bise caused glacial scenes in Nyon on Tuesday. Photo: Catherine Nelson-Pollard/ Livinginnyon.com
Gusts of 93km/hr were recorded in Nyon and 87km/hr in Geneva, with temperatures of around -10C making it feel especially Siberian. But that was nothing on La Dôle in the Jura, which registered 142km/hr and -30C, according to MeteoNews.
 
The conditions created problems for road, rail and lake travel. 
 
Snowdrifts brought traffic to a standstill on the A1 motorway between Aubonne and Rolle on Tuesday afternoon, with police having to employ de-icing machines to free up the roads, reported news agencies.
 
Trains between Lucerne and Geneva airport, as well as some local services, were cancelled towards the end of the day after the rails froze. 
 
And the Compagnie Générale de Navigation (CGN), which operates ferries on Lake Geneva across to France, cancelled three of its commuter services early on Wednesday morning citing ice and strong winds. 
 
 
One canny tweeter, who describes himself as a social media specialist from Lausanne, took advantage of the situation to poke fun at the controversial burqa posters launched last week against the facilitated naturalization of third generation foreigners.
 
The bise, which did not affect German-speaking parts of the country nearly so much, is likely to weaken on Wednesday, though it won't be until Wednesday night and Thursday morning that the wind is expected to die down to a more manageable 40km/hr, said MeteoNews.
 
Temperatures will remain below zero across Switzerland for the rest of the week.
 

Source: MeteoSuisse
 
 

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WEATHER

Will Switzerland be visited by ‘Ice Saints’ this year?

Ascension is not the only annual happening in the country in May, as Switzerland also ‘celebrates’ another 'chilling' event this month.

Published: 8 May 2024 14:20 CEST
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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