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WEATHER

IN PICS: Ten beautiful images of Switzerland in spring

Cherry blossoms, blue skies and flowers everywhere: here are some of best pictures of the recent glorious weather in Switzerland.

Published: 2 April 2019 22:37 CEST
Updated: 4 April 2022 15:32 CEST
Bertastrasse in Zurich in full bloom. Photo by Evan Bollag on Unsplash
Bertastrasse in Zurich in full bloom. Photo by Evan Bollag on Unsplash

Spring has well and truly sprung in Switzerland as the pictures below make clear.

Follow us on Instagram @TheLocalSwitzerland and tag us if you want us to share your own images of this beautiful country.

A flowering magnolia tree in Basel

Bern at twilight

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

About last night… ? #ilovebern #inlovewithswitzerland #cherryblossoms ? @this.is.leonard (Leonard Hofer)

A post shared by Bern Welcome (@ilove_bern) on Apr 1, 2019 at 11:27pm PDT

Cherry blossoms in the city of Sion

Fruit trees in the Thurgau/Lake Constance region

Chur: the capital of the canton of Graubünden

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Winter in the mountains, spring in the valleys ?? ? by @remodemont_photography

A post shared by Graubünden (@graubuenden) on Mar 30, 2019 at 11:44pm PDT

A beautiful spring morning in Zurich

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What a beautiful morning today ??

A post shared by Larisa ??‍♀️Zurich/Switzerland (@justmovedtoswitzerland) on Mar 30, 2019 at 11:16am PDT

Lake Geneva

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Another wonderful evening between rocks and water, this time in St Saphorin. . Canon EOS 5D Mk III | Canon EF 17 – 40mm f/4.0L | Haida NanoPro MC ND 1.8 . #myswitzerland #switzerlandpictures #visitswitzerland #switzerlandwonderland #naturelover #earthpic #discoverswitzerland #blickheimat #discoverlandscape  #earthlove #inlovewitzswitzerland #suissebook #folkscenery #switzerland_bestpix  #loves_united_switzerland  #verliebtindieschweiz #natureaddict #earthvisuals #canonswitzerland #photolightmag #ethereal_moods #gottalove_a_ #mthrworld #lacleman  #beyondthelands_ #longexpoelite #landscape_nightscape #longexpo_addiction #lakegeneva #haidafilter

A post shared by Michel Visentin (@michel.visentin) on Mar 25, 2019 at 12:51pm PDT

A stunning aerial shot in the canton of Valais

More cherry trees: this time in Lausanne

Canton Jura in Switzerland’s west

See also: Ten spectacular spring getaways in Switzerland

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WEATHER

Why are there so many weather-related disasters in Switzerland this summer?

From mudslides to flooded hiking trails, several Swiss regions have suffered serious weather-related damage during this year’s summer season.

Published: 14 August 2024 13:40 CEST
Why are there so many weather-related disasters in Switzerland this summer?

In the past weeks, frequent spells of extreme weather claimed lives and caused considerable material damage in several regions of the country.

Among them:

In June, parts of Switzerland, including the canton of Graubünden and the resort of Zermatt in Valais, were hit by huge floods, which claimed the lives of three people and left buildings and roads destroyed.

They were triggered by a violent thunderstorm that unleashed the rivers, causing a rock and mud avalanche in the municipality of Misox.

Additionally, landslide of mud and rubble destroyed a part of the north-south axis of the A13 motorway.

Areas of Valais and Ticino were also among those badly damaged by storms, with three people dead and five missing in the latter canton; the upper Val Maggia remained cut off from the rest of the country and without water and electricity for days.

And just this week, two people were injured in a massive storm in Brienz (canton Bern) and 70 others had to be evacuated from their homes, after the Milibach river overflowed after heavy rains, carrying stones, boulders and wood, which caused a water collector above the village to flow uncontrollably.

Buildings, parked vehicles, roads and public transport infrastructure were damaged.

Also, more than 620 trails –1,300 km in total – had to be closed to hikers due to heavy rains and flooding that hit some regions of the country at the end of June. 

READ ALSO: Hikers in Switzerland warned as hundreds of trails close

Why has this been happening?

“The summer of 2024 has been marked by particularly bad weather,” said meteorologist Felix Blumer. “There is one or two damaging thunderstorms every summer, but this year, there have been lot of them.”

There is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon: according to Blumer, most of the summer so far, the weather in Switzerland has been dominated by low pressure areas.

“It is precisely the low pressure situations that are important, with the summer solar radiation, the ground heats up very strongly. The warm, light air can rise, cool down, condense – resulting in showers and thunderstorms.”

In a simple(r) language, low pressure gives way to warm air and rainstorms, which explains the high number of strong and destructive thunderstorms.

Is the weather this summer really more ‘extreme’ than in the past?

According to Thomas Schlegel from Switzerland’s official weather service MeteoSwiss, “due to the extreme events that have occurred so far, 2024 will certainly go down in history as a year with a lot of bad weather and damage.”

He also cited “exceptional” lightning activity during the thunderstorms: over 70,000 lightning strikes were recorded — more than during a typical summer.

In fact, two people who were working in a field in Fribourg during one such lightning episode in July, were struck and injured, along with a police officer and a REGA pilot who came to their rescue. 

What’s ahead, weather-wise?

MeteoSwiss’ eight-day weather forecast predicts more rain and thunderstorms, ranging in severity, in various Swiss regions. 

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