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Last Swiss mountain pass road reopens

The last mountain pass highway route in Switzerland was finally cleared of snow on Tuesday as most of the country continued to swelter in a heatwave with record-breaking temperatures.

Published: 18 June 2013 20:44 CEST

Last Swiss mountain pass road reopens

View from the Susten Pass. Photo: Switzerland Tourism

The Susten Pass in the Bernese Oberland was scheduled to reopen to traffic on Wednesday at 10am after being closed for eight months, the national traffic information centre Viasuisse announced.

Heavy snow in the spring delayed the opening of the road through the pass at an elevation of 2,224 metres.

Built during the Second World War, the road connects Innerkirchen in the canton of Bern with Wassen in the canton of Uri offering scenic mountain and valley views.

It mainly serves tourists so is traditionally one of the last passes to be cleared.

The recent warm spell has helped with the snow removal.

MeteoSwiss, the national weather office said Sion experienced the hottest day ever recorded for the month of June, with a maximum of 36.2 degrees.

Temperatures reached 36 degrees in Chur, 35 degrees in Basel and 34 degrees in Zurich, Schaffhausen and Lucerne.

It reached 33 degrees in Bern, Neuchâtel and Geneva.

The forecast calls for continued hot weather on Wednesday before rain and thunderstorms set in on Thursday across most of the country.

The fierce heat led to the evacuation of 40 residents from Saint Niklaus in the canton of Valais on Monday and Tuesday as melting permafrost produced mud flows that threatened chalets in the municipality near Zermatt.

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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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