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Switzerland set for temperatures of 30C over holiday weekend

Some Swiss regions will experience up to 30C heat this weekend, as meteorology experts declare that โ€˜summer is on the wayโ€™.

Published: 29 May 2019 09:48 CEST
Switzerland set for temperatures of 30C over holiday weekend
Switzerland set for a sunny weekend. Image: Depositphotos/anyaberkut

Switzerland has experienced a cold spring, with record snowfall in May – but this weekend's weather is set to finally kick start summer.

Temperatures are predicted to rise to 30 degrees in some areas around the Valais, Basel and Rhone Valley regions, with most of Switzerland set for temperatures between 25 to 28 degrees, according to weather agency experts at MeteoNews and SRF Meteo.

Image: A translated Tweet from the SRF Meteo Twitter page.

Image: A translated Tweet from the MeteoNews Twitter page.

The warmer weather is a result of a change in the atmosphere. According to the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climate on Thursday, “a high-pressure area from the Alps will expand to Switzerland, causing the air mass to dry up.”

A six-day overview of Switzerland's weather reveals that Wednesday will remain overcast in most parts of Switzerland, with Southern Switzerland the first region to slowly warm up with highs of 22 degrees.

Image: The Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climate

Although the weekend delivers great news for sun lovers, Monday is predicted to be heavily overcast with some chance of rain.

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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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