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WEATHER

Switzerland set for cold snap after ‘warmest January day on record’

A cold front is set to sweep across Switzerland from Wednesday evening onwards, after several regions of the country hit record temperatures on Tuesday.

Published: 5 January 2022 11:32 CET
Icicles along a rock wall in the Swiss canton of Graubünden
After one of the warmest starts to the year on record, Switzerland will now experience a drop in temperatures. Photo by Sereina on Unsplash

Five days into January, Switzerland is set for some January style weather from Wednesday evening onwards. 

Swiss weather service Meteonews predicts showers for much of the country, with snow at elevations higher than 500 metres. 

Temperatures between 2 and 5 degrees are predicted in cantons all across the country, other than Ticino where the mercury will reach double figures. 

Depending on your outlook, the shift will be a positive change towards traditional weather or the end of a premature springtime. 

So far in 2022, the weather has resembled that of mid-March, rather than the coldest and darkest part of the year. 

Switzerland brought in the new year with the second-highest temperature ever recorded. 

Poschiavo, in Graubünden, recorded 19.2 degrees on New Year’s Eve, which is slightly lower than the highest ever recorded of 20.6 degrees in 1917. 

Several parts of the country experienced their highest ever January temperatures on Tuesday, with much of the Swiss lowlands well into double figures. 

In the central regions of Gersau and Giswil the temperatures almost hit 20 degrees on Tuesday, while Schaffhausen and Buchs broke previous records by hitting 16.1 degrees. 

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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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