Rolle, Lake Geneva, 16 December 2011
GENEVA / ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Zurich airport is suffering major disruptions due to storms Friday evening 16 December and Geneva airport saw delays during the day, as winter blew into Switzerland with a vengeance.
Valais police are reporting several roads closed due to heavy snow, and the car/train link between Goppenstein and Kandersteg was closed Friday. Trees are down in several parts of Vaud, with one tree hitting three cars in Lausanne.
Joachim is the name of the storm that blasted its way across parts of the Jura and Bern Friday morning, bringing high winds and storms that churned up Lake Neuchatel.
Zurich airport reported some cancelled or delayed flights Friday morning, notably from Nice, London and Amsterdam, all affected by storms. By Friday evening Swiss was sending people to a “bad weather in Europe” page and Zurich airport was showing several flights cancelled or delayed, including Paris and London flights.
Geneva airport, which opened its new visitor center officially 16 December was only lightly touched, with some London flights cancelled and minor delays as the Lake Geneva region was drenched by winds and torrential rains.
The Swiss Institute for snow and avalanche danger has put most of canton Valais on a red alert (level 4) for avalanche danger. Postal cars on the Gampel-Steg and Blatten (Lötschen) line are not running because of the danger of avalanches.
Weather has also closed several regional train lines, including Rochers-de-Naye.
Lake Geneva at Rolle 16 December, looking towards Evian and the French Alps where the clouds are dumping snow
The Rhone (top of photo) was swollen by rains at the end of the week and during the weekend, but water levels fell Sunday
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Genoa, Italy is cleaning up after Liguria’s Friday floods, which followed those of a week earlier centred around nearby Spezia. Four people are reported dead and scores injured after flash floods 4 November.
France’s Var region was hard hit by floods over the weekend, with a retired couple missing and presumed dead after their car was washed away in flooding. Le Monde reports that 1,300 people were evacuated, with more than 300 ml of rain falling in three days, an amount normally seen in three months.
Switzerland’s southern regions, notably Ticino, and some Alpine areas in other cantons were on high alert at the start of the weekend with water levels high, but by late Sunday Meteo Swiss had lifted the danger alerts, with water levels falling for the Rhone and Lakes Lugano and Majore.
Swiss natural disaster alerts are listed on a federal web page, www.dangers-naturels.ch
THAILAND – The Thai government has ordered the shut down of Bangkok’s second airport as floodwaters advance towards the nation’s capital.
The cabinet also ordered a five-day holiday for Bangkok and 20 other provinces affected by the worst flooding in decades, amid warnings a high tide would surge up the capital’s main river and escalate the disaster.
The Don Muang airport is used mainly for domestic flights.
Thailand has been hit by heavy monsoon rain since July, leading to flooding which has hit swathes of the country and left more than 360 people dead.
Links to: BBC News, Bangkok Post
Swiss Alps downpour: the birds were happy
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Happy worm-hunting birds were the rare creatures outside Monday morning in Switzerland as rain, rain and more rain fell.
Traffic on a number of highways early Monday was slowed down by the soggy start to the week.
Switzerland was drenched, with the exception of parts of Ticino; the central and eastern parts of the country were given an orange alert Monday morning by the national weather service, MeteoSwiss, for heavy rainfall.
Some areas received up to 60mm of rain between Sunday night and Monday noon, with most areas getting 25-35mm.
The new downpour, the result of a cold front from the north, followed 80-110mm in some regions from Thursday to Sunday, ending a long dry spell in many areas, particularly in the Alps.
Another 10 to 20mm is likely to fall Monday afternoon on northern Alpine slopes, especially along the eastern stretch and northern Graubuenden.
The snowline, which was down to 1,200 metres Saturday, rose to 2,600 metres Monday as temperatures warmed up.
All parts of the country should see rain end by Monday evening.
Photo: © Loris von Siebenthal – myimage.ch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Ernesto Bertarelli’s D35 Alinghi whipped into Geneva Saturday afternoon to complete the Bol d’Or sailing race in a record 6 hours 25 minutes. The previous D35 category record had stood since 2004 when Zebra 7 finished in just under 9 hours.
Bertarelli’s craft, one of a number of his boats named Alinghi, took the lead at the outset and never let up, winning a tough race fought out with 25 knot winds and high waves at Le Bouveret, the eastern end of the lake, on a cold, rainy Saturday. The top four boats crossed the finish line within 10 minutes of Alinghi’s arrival.
Runners-up after Alinghi’s 16:25 finish were: Foncia, with Michel Desjoyeaux; Ylliam, with Arnaud Psarofaghis, and Okalys-Corum, with Loïck Peyron.
Hydroptère fast, but not consistently so
One of the much-awaited shows of the race, Europe’s largest inland sailing competition, was Alain Thébault’s Hydroptère, which had trouble getting going, then put on a fine show at high speeds along the shores of Evian before eventually pulling out of the race.
14:30, the race viewed from above Lutry: more than 500 boats joined the Bol d'Or in 2011
Devastating floods in the Rio de Janeiro region in Brazil continue to take a high toll, with the number of deaths now well above 400 and expected to rise as rescuers find more bodies. Some 14,000 people are homeless and the country’s new president, Dilma Rousseff has promised US$400 million in aid to clean up and rebuild.
In other extreme weather news, Brisbane and the Queenlands area in Australia fear more rain is on the way, with a cyclone building up offshore while the massive damage from high waters of the past two weeks is assessed. Reuters reports that 12,000 homes have been destroyed and 118,000 buildings are without electricity. The World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland 10 January confirmed that the heavy rains are part of the La Nina weather pattern.
In the Boston area and much of the rest of the northeastern US, heavy snows are threatening again, but schools and airports have re-opened after being closed for two days while the area dug itself out.
Links to other sites: Boston.com, Los Angeles Times, Reuters
Video, Boston.com
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – They don’t make autoroutes like they used to, and for sustainability fans, this is a good thing. The new 11 km stretch of four-lane divided highway in Weinland, the A4, was opened at noon Friday 22 October between Schaffhausen and Winterthur, near Zurich. It has two underpasses and an overpass for local fauna to get them safely across the road.
The most startling difference for drivers is that the road is 8 metres narrower than older, more familiar autoroutes. There are no emergency lanes, but pullover emergency stopping places have been created. Plants have been carefully selected and trees planted with a view to encouraging wildlife to stay in the area. And rainwater from the road will be collected by eight special installations that will treat them and return the water to nearby streams that have been left in their wild state.
Be sure to check the weather on GenevaLunch before you leave home this weekend.
Jet d'eau in Geneva, viewed from Genthod, rain falling
Expect more wind and plenty of rain in Lake Geneva region
Wisteria in Bernex, still on the vines, but not for long with Tuesday's wind
Wind, egg out of nest, fly into egg to eat supper: nature at work on a windy Geneva day
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The wind blew and blew in the Lake Geneva region Tuesday 4 May, with the national weather service predicting slightly less wind Wednesday on the plains and near the lake.
Rain is forecast to continue for the rest of the week, but alternating with sunny spells starting Thursday. Temperatures in the range of 6-12C, up to 15C in canton Valais, with the snow line remaining at 2,000 metres.
The Tribune de Geneve reports that the high winds are taking their toll on birds’ nest in Geneva, including a pair of swans nesting near the Hotel Wilson, whose seven eggs spilled out when waves hit the nest.
Geneva’s bird centre has been busy accepting calls for help with stranded or injured birds, according to the Tribune. The phone number: +41 79 624 33 07.
Images, left: Laser-assisted condensation of a cloud of water droplets
A high-power, ultrashort laser (red beam on the image) ionises air and triggers the condensation of water droplets in a simulation chamber. The resulting cloud is illuminated by a second, green laser, superposed with the first laser beam. ©2010, Jean-Pierre Wolf / University of Geneva
Update 14:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Rain on demand might not sound like something you want today, if you’ve just lived through Switzerland’s watery weekend, but a team at the University of Geneva is working on exactly this, a feature story in Nature magazine’s web site 3 May reports. Optical physicist Jérôme Kasparian at the University of Geneva and a team have been developing technology that uses lasers to create water droplets, which could someday lead to the ability to trigger rain.
©2010, Jean-Pierre Wolf, University of Geneva
First critiques of the technology praise it as having “breakthrough” potential, although the research is at an early stage.
Seeding clouds with silver iodide has been the main method of trying to make rain since the middle of the 20th century, but there are doubts about its efficacy.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It is hard to find a dry spot in Switzerland Wednesday 30 December, with the country soaked to the bones by a warm front from the southwest that has raised temperatures 7-10 C above normal for this time of the year. Aargau in the north has been worst hit, with 32.7 litres of rain per square metre in two hours.
Eleven people are missing after heavy rain and flooding washed out bridges and roads, and put towns under several feet of water in England and Scotland. The storms were expected but their impact nevertheless caught many areas by surprise. Cumbria in England, on the border with Scotland, was the worst-hit area. Heavy rain and gale-force winds are forecast in the area and for much of the UK in the next few days. Flood alerts are continuing and some rail service is likely to be disrupted.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The worst floods in decades in southern India have killed at least 250 people and left some 2.5 million people homeless. Aid workers from around the globe have “fanned out” across the region, reports the Press Association, to meet the urgent needs of people who only weeks earlier were suffering from severe drought. The torrential rains appear to have been caused by a low pressure zone over the Bay of Bengal and more rain is expected in the next 24 hours, say weather forecasters.
The official death toll from tropical storm Ketsana rose by 100, to 240, as rescue workers in Manila, Philippines scoured the area for victims of the storm 28 September which dumped a month’s worth of rain on Manila in 12 hours Saturday 26 September. The emergency relief efforts have been completely swamped by the magnitude of the flooding, the worst in more than 40 years.
The rescue operations are concentrating on getting supplies to almost 400,000 people displaced by the storm who have lost everything. In all, 25 provinces and 1.8 million people have been affected by the storm. Weather forecasters say that a new storm is moving in and could bring more rain Thursday 1 October. BBC, CNN,
Background: “WMO says Philippines weekend flooding worst in 42 years“, 28 September 2009, GenevaLunch
St Prex clock tower, covered street, during St Prex Festival 2009
Stars Le Riche, Osta, spinning magic in St Prex
St Prex, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The main street of the medieval village of St Prex was graced Tuesday night 25 August with star dancers from the Paris Opera Nicolas Le Riche and his wife Clairemarie Osta in Prokoviev’s “Romeo & Juliet” as part of the St Prex Festival.
For the second night running the storms that have dumped heavy rain on the region held off long enough for the performers to enchant the crowd. The festival is an open-air one, but an awning covers the main street, where the audience is seated.
Weather forecast: more rain Thursday, but weather is expected to turn sunny and warm again Friday
The frustration of seeing tennis matches begin and then stop due to rain at Wimbledon in England should be a thing of the past, with a new retractable roof fitted with floodlights ready for Centre Court action 22 June. Local officials have given the go-ahead for Wimbledon games to be played as late as necessary. Short delays could still be part of the game, since it takes 8-10 minutes to close the top and another 30 for the air system to ensure the grass is dry enough for play, reports AFP.
