Featuring alongside green Christmas trees and delicate lights, pure white snow is synonymous with Christmas in Switzerland. 

Across much of the country however, dreams of a white Christmas have been dashed – with temperatures in some places set to be more than ten degrees above zero. 

See also: Your complete guide to Switzerland's best Christmas markets in 2019

The Swiss meteorological service Meteonews confirmed that temperatures are six degrees above regular December levels. 

READ: Climate change set to cost Switzerland 'CHF1 billion per year' 

On Tuesday the 17th, the highest ever December temperature in Switzerland was recorded – 20.5 degrees in Giswil, in the canton of Obwalden. 

While no snow at Christmas time isn’t unusual in some parts of Switzerland – only one in six Geneva Christmases are snowy – the temperature levels are clearly abnormal. 

The current predictions for Christmas Day in Geneva are 10C and raining, while Zurich will have rain and 8C. Bern, Basel and Lucerne are all forecast to have temperatures between 7-9 on Christmas Day. 

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 14.0px; font: 12.0px Times; color: #0000e9; -webkit-text-stroke: #0000e9}
span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none}