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WEATHER

Snowfall ends Switzerland’s Indian summer

Distinctly chilly temperatures and widespread precipitation brought the mild, sunny autumn to an end over the weekend, with snow falling in the Alps and down to 600m altitude in some parts of the country on Sunday night.

Published: 6 November 2017 08:51 CET
Snowfall ends Switzerland’s Indian summer
The webcam at Wengen, in the Bernese Oberland, on Monday morning. Image: Wengen webcam
A cold front crossed the country on Sunday, said MeteoSuisse, bringing cold air from the north-east in the form of a chilly bise wind gusting above 50km/hr in many parts.
 
The snow limit dropped to 800m on Sunday night, with abundant precipitation in the Alps, said MeteoNews, predicting it would drop further to 600m during the course of Monday.
 
Above 1,500m in the Alps up to one metre of snow is expected. 
 
Indeed, many alpine resorts were showing fresh snow on their webcams and social media feeds on Monday morning, including Nendaz and Verbier in the Valais, resorts in the Bernese Oberland and the Val d'Anniviers.
 
 
 
The sudden drop in temperatures was preceded by a warm foehn wind on Saturday which kept the air mild, particularly in eastern parts of the country where temperatures reached 19 degrees in places.
 
In general October was unusually warm, dry and sunny, with temperatures 1.3 degrees above the norm for that time of year. In parts it was the sunniest October since records began.  
 

 

Swiss ski resorts will be hoping this change in the weather marks the start of the winter season. However early snow does not guarantee a prolonged ski season. Last year snow arrived in November but was followed by an exceptionally dry December and no fresh snow until January in many parts of the country. 

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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