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Parts of Switzerland experience hottest night EVER

Last night in Switzerland was hotter than ever before in some places, according to meteorologists.

Published: 23 June 2017 11:41 CEST
Parts of Switzerland experience hottest night EVER
Güttingen on Lake Constance was the hottest place in the country on Thursday night. Photo: Ivo Scholz/Swiss Tourism
A partly cloudy night in the middle of a heatwave meant temperatures surpassed 20 degrees – the threshold indicating a ‘tropical’ night – in almost all of the country on the night of Thursday to Friday, said SRF Meteo. 
 
And in some parts the mercury touched 25 degrees, breaking local records.  
 
The hottest place in the country was Güttingen on Lake Constance in the canton of Thurgau which broke the 25-degree mark, five degrees hotter than its previous warmest night ten years ago.  
 
 
Zurich broke its previous record by three degrees by hitting 24.2, making it the hottest ever night since temperatures were first recorded in 1882.
 
Neuchâtel (24 degrees), Vevey (23.3 degrees), St Gallen (23.2 degrees) and Fribourg (22.1 degrees) all experienced tropical temperatures, said MeteoNews. 
 
But nowhere quite managed to break the Swiss record, held by Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland where it reached 26 degrees on one steamy night in 2009.
 
The hot weather is set to persist on Saturday before storms cool things down on Sunday and into 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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