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WEATHER

Switzerland braces for weekend snow falls as icy spell continues

Large parts of Switzerland saw their first snowfall of the year on Friday and it looks set to continue over the weekend.

Published: 9 December 2022 17:03 CET
Local residents walk in the snow in Geneva on December 9, 2022.
Local residents walk in the snow in Geneva on December 9, 2022. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP

On Friday morning the first snow arrived in the Swiss lowlands – including Bern and Solothurn – while Geneva saw 6 centimetres of fresh snow and 15 centimetres landed in Fribourg.

In the canton of Bern alone, there were over fifty accidents on the roads by 8:00 am on Friday, while in Geneva, emergency services were called out around 60 times from midnight to late morning because of the snowfall, according to the fire department. Firefighters were particularly busy clearing fallen trees and fallen branches from roads.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What to do if you have a car accident in Switzerland

At Geneva Airport, the snow was causing disruption on the runways and delayed flights between 06:00 and 07:00 am by around an hour, an airport spokeswoman told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Most of the downfall was concentrated in the mountains and in the west of the country, while east of Zurich the snowfall was limited and there was no snow recorded at all in the Glarus and Chur regions.

What’s the outlook for the weekend?

According to Meteo News, the snowfall will continue: “In the night on Friday, with the exception of the eastern foothills and northern Bünden, snow is increasing” it said.

In the mountains, 5 to 30 centimetres of fresh snow are expected to fall on Friday and will be particularly heavy in western regions of 1500 metres and above. That includes the western Alps, the Vaud Alps, the Bernese Oberland and also parts of the Valais. The further east you go, however, the less snow will fall.

According to SRF, snow showers will persist north of the Alps on Saturday, while the Alpine valleys will see rain or sleet. Meteo Schweiz expert, Daniel Murer told news outlet Watson that he expects widespread snowfall to set in on Saturday morning in the lowlands and in the west, which will then ease off in the evening. On the central, eastern and northern slopes of the Alps, snowfall will continue until Sunday afternoon, he said. 

On Sunday, the weather is expected to turn milder, with the last snow showers in the east appearing early in the day before the weather turns sunnier.

READ ALSO: Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Friday

The lowlands and the northern side of the Alps are expected to see between 1 and 5 centimetres of new snowfall on Sunday, while up to 10 centimetres of snow could still arrive in the western midlands and near the foothills of the Alps, and between 10 and 15 centimetres on the central and northern slopes of the Alps.

For most of the country, the temperature will barely reach above freezing on Sunday and icy temperatures look set to prevail at the beginning of next week. People should wrap extra warm on the way to work on Monday morning, as the forecasts suggest that icy cold will persist throughout most of the country, with temperatures between -3 and -7 degrees.

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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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