Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

WEATHER

Switzerland’s Siberia readies for ‘cold festival’

A valley known as the Siberia of Switzerland for its bone-chilling winters is celebrating the fact with its third annual "festival of the cold".

Published: 3 February 2014 20:05 CET

Switzerland’s Siberia readies for ‘cold festival’

Dog sledding at La Brévine. Photo: Neuchâtel Tourism

The valley of La Brévine in the canton of Neuchâtel aims to attract tourists with its weekend festival, which gets under way on Friday, February 7th.

Roads are banned to motor vehicles for a “snow-up”, where people use cross-country skis, snow shoes or just durable boots to get around.

A frozen lake, dog sleds, snow sculptures, balloon rides, dogsledding and an artisanal market are all part of the festival, which was unveiled on Monday.

“People come here in winter and we hope that they’ll return in the summer,” said Jean-Maurice Gasser, chairman of the “Valley of the Brévine — Siberia of Switzerland” association, according to a report from the ATS news agency.

A village of snow and ice will be built on the Lac des Taillères and the Wind Band Neuchâtalois, a 60-person ensemble, are set to perform a concert to kick off the event on Friday night.

Only one minor problem with the festival that aims to make a virtue of adversity: it seems La Brévine is not quite as cold as it used to be.

To be sure, a temperature of minus 41.8 degrees was recorded there on January 12th 1987.

But this winter, the coldest day was a mere minus 22 degrees, on January 25th.

And a return to biting cold is not expected for the weekend, when the freezing level for snow is expected to range from 1,000 to 1,500 metres above sea level.

La Brévine is located at 1,045 metres.

“We are tributaries of the times,” Gasser said, referring to the mild weather this year, ATS reported.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

Url copied to clipboard!