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WEATHER

Wild weather: chaos as torrential rainfall strikes Lausanne

Heavy rainfall hit the Swiss city of Lausanne on Monday evening with authorities saying there was extensive damage.

Published: 12 June 2018 09:53 CEST
Wild weather: chaos as torrential rainfall strikes Lausanne
Authorities have warned people to avoid parks and other green areas. Photo: Etienne Kocher

Emergency services had received 500 calls by 3am on Tuesday morning as the rain affected roads, houses and train and bus lines.

Fortunately, there were no reports of injuries. But authorities have warned people to stay away from parks and other green areas because of the risk of falling trees.

SRF Meteo said Lausanne saw 41.1 millilitres of rainfall in just 10 minutes at 11pm on Monday – what could be a new Swiss record if it is confirmed. The previous 10-minute record was seen in Eschenz in Thurgau on August 2nd 2017.

Train services were operating as normal around Lake Geneva on Tuesday morning although there were some delays, Lausanne daily 24 Heures reported.

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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