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Air force aids snow-stricken Ticino villages

The Swiss Air Force provided aid on Thursday to communities in the canton of Ticino that have been cut off following heavy snowfall in the southernmost Swiss region.

Published: 6 February 2014 22:35 CET

Air force aids snow-stricken Ticino villages

Ticino village of Bosco Gurin on Friday morning. Photo: RSI/Webcam

The armed forces organized flights from Locarno to provide provisions at the request of the canton to stricken areas.

A Super Puma helicopter transported 16 tonnes of hay for 60 cows otherwise without fodder in Sant’Antonio in the Valle di Peccia, the federal department of defence said.

A road into the valley has been blocked for several days by an avalanche, leaving several hundred people isolated.

“We hope to be able to open a gap to at least ensure a passage in case of an emergency,” Peccia Mayor Michel Rotanzi told the Corrriere del Ticino newspaper.

Two other Super Pumas and a Eurocopter EC635 are on standby for other emergency help in other Alpine areas, the defence department said.

The heavy snow has raised the risk of avalanches in much of Ticino, the government said.

The risk of an avalanche at the Campo Blenio ski resort forced the postponement of a giant slalom race planned for Friday, involving 15 MPs from the Ticino cantonal parliament.

The weather cleared on Thursday, but MeteoSwiss, the national weather office, said more snow is expected on Friday at higher elevations in the canton.

Five to 10 centimetres of the white stuff was forecast for the valleys in the northern part of Ticino, with more in the Alps.

Meanwhile, MeteoSwiss issued a code 3 warning of high winds up to 110 kilometres an hour in the Jura Mountains and part of the Alps extending from Wengen in the Bernese Oberland to Liechtenstein.

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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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