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WEATHER

13,000 tourists stranded in Zermatt, village cut off as avalanche risk raised to max

Several villages in southern Switzerland, including the ski resort of Zermatt, were cut off from the outside world on Tuesday after extreme weather conditions raised the avalanche risk to the maximum level.

Published: 9 January 2018 09:13 CET
Updated: 9 January 2018 12:16 CET
13,000 tourists stranded in Zermatt, village cut off as avalanche risk raised to max
Zermatt on Tuesday morning. Photo: webcam image
Both the road and the railway line to Zermatt were closed after the avalanche risk was raised to five, commune president Romy Biner-Hauser told Valais paper Le Nouvelliste on Monday evening, however as yet the village has not had to be evacuated.
 
“The situation is being monitored every half hour and if things change we will take the necessary measures,” he said.
 
By Tuesday morning Swiss media said the village was now suffering electricity black-outs, and that some 13,000 tourists were stranded in the ski resort, unable to leave.
 
All ski installations in Zermatt and Saas-Fee were closed on Tuesday morning due to the heavy snow and extreme conditions.
 
“We can't ski or go walking, but it's calm, a bit romantic,” Janine Imesch, a spokesperson for the Zermatt area, told the media.
 
Two houses in St Niklaus, near Zermatt, were evacuated on Monday evening. Elsewhere in the canton of Valais the villages of Gondo and Saas were also cut off after landslides on the roads, while the road between St Luc and Zinal in the Val d’Anniviers was closed on Tuesday morning due to the high avalanche risk.
 
In recent days a foehn wind has brought mild temperatures and rain to the Swiss lowlands, however it’s an entirely different story above 1,200m-1,600m altitude in the southern canton of Valais, where up to a metre of snow has fallen in the last few days. More is expected throughout Tuesday, according to MeteoNews.
 
People took to social media to post photos and videos of the abundant snowfall, showing Zermatt and other villages blanketed in white. 
 

 

 
By contrast, parts of Switzerland on Monday experienced temperatures far above the seasonal norm, with Altdorf in the canton of Uri hitting 17.6 degrees. Einsiedeln in Schwyz set a new January record with 14 degrees.

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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