ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Insurance company Zurich Thursday 10 May reports a 78 percent increase (dollars) in net income attributable to shareholders for the quarter ending 31 March, compared to a year earlier. The company’s business operating profit was $1.4 billion and net income after tax was $1.1b.
The “strong performance”, as Zurich qualified the quarter’s results, were due in part to a lower level of major catastrophe and other large losses, compared to early 2011. All parts of the business saw growth, although weather-related events led to reduced profit from the reinsurance operations.
High wind forced back the bulk of racers, continues to roar through Alps
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Weather is playing the tough guy for the Glacier Patrol, arguably the world’s toughest high mountain trail race, as it stops most of the skiers before they can even make tracks. Late Wednesday 25 April, as the starting gun went for the race, which has more than 1,500 teams of three skiers, the wind picked up and then it quickly began to roar. In Alpine valleys the warm air foehn wind from the Iberian peninsula has been blowing hard and is expected to continue.
Higher up, where the race is being run, the strong southwest current has provoked very strong gusting winds. The organizers stopped the race from Zermatt Wednesday evening, obliging 850 skiers to head back down to Zermatt not long after they started at 21:00.
Forecast
Sunrise on the north side of the Rhone Valley Friday 27 April, with clouds that bode better for the Glacier Patrol
The forecast Thursday night was for continuing gusting winds at altitude and the foehn to continue in Alpine valleys until Sunday. Temperatures will rise with highs in Zermatt, the main race starting point, and Verbier, the finishing point, of 17C. Zero will be at 3,300 metres altitude during the night and 3,300m during the day and racers will definitely feel the heat, say the organizers in their Glacier Patrol weather report.
Ed. note: a new weather bulletin is issued at 08:00 daily but appears on the PDG news site slightly later.
The high winds won’t keep the Patrouille Suisse acrobatic airplane teams from performing. They are scheduled to put on a show in Verbier Saturday from 17:00 to 17:30.
The next group of skiers is scheduled to leave Zermatt at 21:00 Friday.
Tip – if you’ve taken advantage of the very good app created by Swisscom for the race, you can use your cowbell to cheer on the skiers by shaking your phone at them!
Sunset photos of mountains just to the east of the race Thursday night show typical foehn clouds (and one image of sunrise Friday).
NASA says lessons learned from 2011 twisters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The killer tornadoes that hit the southeastern United States a year ago left mostly chaos in their trail, but they also handed scientists some interesting lessons, says Nasa (US aeronautics agency). The lessons could come in handy as unseasonably warm weather reaches across much of the US, bringing with it early tornadoes.
The 27-28 April twisters were “the costliest convective storms in US history”, the agency says of the deadly storms: 202 tornadoes in two days took 316 lives. Tornado topography, which looks at how the lay of the land may affect potential storms – valleys to channel them, mountain slopes to help air roll quickly – was given a scientific boost by the massive number of storms in a short time in adjacent areas.
Max began the mating season with a visit to her old nest from 2003-2004 near Tüfingen, Germany, close the Swiss border (photo ©2012 Heidi Buergermeister).
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Max the stork, the world’s longest tracked wild bird, is settling down to have a new family on the edges of Lake Constance, reports the Museum of Natural History in Fribourg, which tracks the bird.
She returned from her winter home in Spain the last week of February and she was seen a couple of times with the father of her 2003 and 2004 families, but the next day her most recent mate, who fathered last year’s offspring, reappeared and he and Max have been a pair since then.
Patrouille Suisse ready to swoop over the slopes in Crans-Montana between World Cup ski race runs
View from Crans-Montana area at dawn Friday, a weekend filled with promise for World Cup skiers (click on image to view larger)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A good time was had by all, but the repeat of 1987, when the Swiss dominated the World Cup ski competition in Crans-Montana, never quite happened 24-26 February.
The sun was mostly shining, the skies were filled with the roar and impressive aerobatics of the Patrouille Suissse planes, and Swiss skiers put in a good but not brilliant performance.
Didier Cuche, in his final run on a Swiss course before he retires at the end of the season, came in first in Friday’s Super-G, with five Swiss in the top 20, but as the crowd of 23,000 and the snow both warmed up, the Swiss performance slipped a bit.
A fleet of buses including scores of Swiss postal cars, and a one-way system for local roads, get the crowd of 23,000 ski fans moving smoothly
The second leg of the Super-G Saturday saw Cuche in third place and Beat Feuz, the new Swiss hope, in 10th, with Austrian Benjamin Raich winning the run.
The Giant on Sunday gave Cuche a 15th place but Didier Defago put in an excellent appearance and came in fifth. The event was won by Massimiliano Blardone of Italy in a surprise performance and Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who now leads the overall rankings, was second.
Didier Cuche is now fourth in overall ranking, and Beat Feuz third, with five events left in the season.
Crans-Montana event details, TSR, Fre and FIS live reviews
Skiing in Switzerland: waiting for the bus near Lake Geneva, to head up to the slopes
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Schools in Vaud are on vacation starting this afternoon, and the weather forecast promises us some of the warmest temperatures since early January. Expect the slopes to be busy.
Snow cover is still excellent everywhere, so no matter where you head, you can’t go wrong, but don’t sleep in: the best snow will be waiting for you in the mornings.
This is a shaping up to be a big and busy weekend in the Swiss Alps, with the men’s World Cup downhill races on in Crans-Montana.
Weather and avalanche risk forecast
MeteoSwiss is telling us to get out the sun cream. Temperatures in the Alps will be 1-3C on the low end with highs of 7 to 11C. Geneva and Lausanne can expect sunny skies initially but with some cloud cover as the weekend wears on, and the sharp cold bise wind blowing by Monday. Mountain areas will have only light winds.
The wet avalanche risk will rise as the temperatures climb. The danger of dry snow avalanches is 2/5 but for wet snow avalanches it rises to 3, throughout the Alps, for Friday.
Alpine resorts
The Norwegian (shown here) and Swiss ski teams trained in Anzeres this week, in the run-up to the World Cup races in Crans-Montana
The Crans-Montana men’s downhill World Cup ski races are the big weekend event. It is the last time that Didier Cuchewill race in Switzerland before his retirement, and Saturday night at the ice rink in Montana he will be given the trophy for “Swiss man of the year”, an honor he was given last month.
The races are open to the public. Tickets are CHF20-60 and the two towns of Crans and Montana have plenty of activities lined up.
Zermatt For those who would rather be racing themselves, Zermatt has a great event Saturday 25 February, a nighttime race from 17:00-22:00 that ends with a spaghetti dinner at Sunnegga.
Verbier A wild ride for anyone who loves sledding: Sunday 26 February the resort is hosting the final of the Valais Sled Trophy, “the legendary 10km La Tzoumaz ski run,” it says on its site. “Over a 4km long stretch, between pastures and forests, the 540 m drop will get everyone’s skates on! Families, amateurs, and USO (Unidentified sliding object) owners alike are invited to take part in this popular event – it’s a veritable sled party!” Take along some medical gel for bruises, for afterwards.
Jura report
by Shirley Curran
Slightly warmer weather has arrived but snow conditions remain excellent in the resorts in the Jura mountains.All are boasting over a metre and a half of snow at the higher levels. At the moment, with the French holidays continuing, crowds are developing from 10:00 onwards, but our large capacity lifts seem to cope and all runs have been open this week.
Ghetto-blasting snowboards and other things you might find on the slopes
And now a word about the people on the slopes you might want to avoid, if you’re not part of their group: Signal Snowboards, a US company, makes snowboards that do more than just move you on the snow and in the air, reports Wired. Take, for instance, their snowboards that shoot paintballs. Or blast music.
What you’re more likely to find on Swiss slopes this weekend is strange creatures, skiers in costume as they prepare to head off for Carnival.
Carnival time!
Basel Fasnacht
If you’re willing to go down from the mountains for a bit, Bern’s Carnival is on this weekend, worth a detour en route to the Bernese Alps resorts.
And one of Switzerland’s best shows starts Monday in Basel, the city’s famed Fasnacht, which starts in the wee hours and goes until late for three days and nights. The entire city turns out, well disguised and ready for some serious play, while the 30,000 visitors who pour into the city for the fun enjoy the show.
©2012 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
St Prex, Switzerland and Lake Geneva: -10 before noon, with an icy wind, 6 February 2012
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – If you’ve been talking to friends about our Arctic weather, you should revise your description, for in recent days it’s been warmer in Svalbard, far north in the Arctic, than in Milan, Italy or Istanbul, Turkey, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva. Svalbard has seen 5C in recent days while Milan can expect -10 by the end of this week.
We’re currently in a “negative Arctic Oscillation” in Europe, says the WMO, based on reports coming in from its members, national weather services around the world.
The Arctic Oscillation “is the difference in pressure between Polar areas and mid-latitude areas (where most of the population in Europe lives). At the moment there is a negative Arctic Oscillation, which favors cold conditions in Europe and relatively warmer conditions in the Arctic.”
Our glacial temperatures are not even setting new records. “The long duration of the cold period, its relatively late onset and the extent of the cold area are noteworthy but not exceptional. The continental cold air extended even over the Balkan peninsula; slight ongoing frost was recorded even in northern Greece” in the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, Svalbard but also much of North America has benefited from mild air moving over the North Atlantic northwards over Iceland up to the Arctic region, according to the WMO.
Max mating back in March 2011 - Photo ©H.Burgermeister
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Keep the woolens handy, for Max the stork is sitting tight in Catalonia and she isn’t in a hurry to come home.
Groundhog shadows may give us clues to the length of winter in some countries, but in Switzerland it’s Max the stork, banded and followed by the Fribourg Natural History Museum.
She began her migration north about a week ago, from central Spain, but she is now sitting in Catalonia without appearing ready to head up to a Switzerland that is far colder than usual.
Background, Max, GenevaLunch
Fire death, drunk driver victims, high speed chase part of busy weekend emergency services work
Strong winds coupled with frigid temperatures whipped up icy flames on the lake surface Monday morning
Lake Geneva views of opposite shorelines obliterated by heavy waves and two metre high tongues of icy mists Monday 6 February
GENEVA / LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A new record low temperature for this winter was set in canton Graubuenden’s Engadine region, in Samedan this weekend: -35.1C.
The death toll from the cold in Europe, now estimated to be over 300 people, continues to rise.
In Switzerland, the icy weekend kept police and firefighters busy, and Touring Club Suisse (TCS), the automobile club, had a record 23,000 calls to help motorists.
Trains are running slow in several areas as the CFF rail company deals with icy lines and other cold-related problems.
Burst pipes caused flooding Saturday and Sunday, notably in Geneva and Lausanne, reports TSR. The head of Swissgrid, which manages the Swiss electricity supply, told NZZ in Zurich this weekend that the country risks blackouts in coming days because the system is pushed to its limits.
A main SSR (public broadcasting) emitter on top of Säntis mountain gave way under pressure from heavy snow, according to 24 Heures, and is using emergency power.
Vernier drunk driver crashes into trio
Police in Geneva were called to Vernier Saturday night where a 25-year-old man with a two-week old grudge against a nightclub worker left the establishment on Chemin des Batailles and got into his parked car, then drove into three young customers of the club, narrowly missing the club employee.
He had been drinking in several night spots and his alcohol level was measured at 1.69 after the accident, according to Geneva police. His victims were a 20-year-old Geneva man who lives in Vernier who was treated at the nearby Hopital de la Tour and two women who were taken to the cantonal hospital. The 19-year-old woman, who is Bolivian and lives in Rolle, is being treated for several facial injuries and the 18-year-old for a broken leg.
The driver continued and crashed into a number of rental cars parked nearby. He is under arrest for attempting to cause severe bodily harm and on other charges, and his license has been lifted.
Lausanne police chase ends in three captured
A car in Lutry with four people suddenly took off Friday when police stopped it and led area police on a high-speed chase as far as Chemin Campagne Pierraz-Portay in Pully, where the passengers took off on foot. Two were caught and arrested, along with the driver, when police discovered a quantity of goods stolens from homes in the Lausanne region. The car had Belgian plates and the two Algerians and one Iraqi were from Belgium, ages 32-35. Police are looking for their partner.
One dead in Martigny fire
One person died and another was saved by firefighters from a second floor balcony of an apartment building early Saturday 4 February when a fire broke out.
The identity of the victim is being established, say canton Valais police.
The first floor apartment was unoccupied. The cause of the fire, at 01:15, is being investigated.
Hazelnut, Basel, 3 January 2012 (photo: MeteoSwiss pollen forecasts)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Massive amounts of snow cover the Jura and Alps, but on the Lake Geneva region plains the weather has been clement, and for hay fever sufferers that translates into the hazelnut trees budding. Where the air is dry, pollen is already being released.
The amounts are small but measurable near Geneva, MeteoSwiss’s pollen map shows, but by tomorrow in Ticino, with flowering already occurring Thursday 12 January, the rating will go up to “average”, as they have done in some very locally confined areas, such as Buchs in eastern Switzerland.
Flowering of troublesome pollen-bearing plants has been happening earlier since the 1990s, says the national weather service but traditionally this happens anywhere from December to March depending on the combination of a number of factors. Hazelnuts are now forecast to flower 24 January in Geneva and Lausanne, a full two weeks earlier than the average.
MeteoSwiss is now offering a daily pollen forecasting service, in French, German and Italian, with maps showing the daily situation for the main varieties that cause problems. A smart-phone application is free of charge.
Editor Ellen Wallace shot this view out her kitchen window Thursday night, dimpled snow lit by a farmer's tractor headlights - by morning there was an additional foot of snow and the surface was smooth and white
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Friday 14:30, 6 January: snow has been falling steadily and heavily in many parts of Switzerland for the past 36 hours, with Crans-Montana and other resorts recording 100cm of fresh snow at 3,000 metres in the past 24 hours.
Most resorts are closed due to very high winds and heavy snow.
Canton Valais police say they received 1,200 phone calls between 08:00 Thursday and midnight, with flooding and fallen trees as well as electricity out in some areas. St Niklaus in the Goms Valley was without electricity and phones for several hours.
Main roads in Valais remain open but local road-clearing services are pushed to their limits and side roads above about 1,000 metres are closed or not completely cleared in many areas.
The CFF rail company says most trains are running, but several smaller trains up to mountain areas are not running, including Montreux to Rochers-de-Naye, Aigle to Diableret, Martigny-Le Chable, the funiculaire from Sierre to Crans-Montana, several Interlaken lines (Murren, Grindelwald, Kleine Scheidegg, Jungfraujoch) and the Valais-Bern train for cars is operating irregularly, with no stops at Goppenstein since the road between there and Goppel is closed.
Kloten airport had several delays due to and snow, but mid-afternoon Friday most flights are back on schedule. Geneva airport has not been affected by the weather in the rest of the country. Zurich and central Switzerland had winds up to 120kph, reports swissinfo.
The Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, WSL, has issued a bulletin showing the avalanche risk at 4/5 (high) in eastern Vaud, most of Valais and Graubuenden:
More en route, so don't put the shovels away yet (Valais, January 2012)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The weather people have given it a name already: winter storm Andrea is en route and we can expect snow down to 400 metres in the Jura and Lake Geneva regions.
Snow should fall down to the plain in canton Valais, with high winds in mountain areas.
The Jura can expect gusts of up to 180kph from Thursday morning to Friday.
Ski slopes are likely to be closed for much of Thursday and Friday due to high winds; check local conditions and openings. Alpine areas are likely to have 40-60cm of fresh snow before the weekend.
Two die as high winds sweep the region
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Winds of up to 100mph in Scotland and other parts of Britain 3 January are causing considerable damage, with some areas suffering power cuts and transport disrupted, including the London-Edinburgh trains. A man died in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in southern England when a tree fell on his van and a sailor, one of three injured on a boat in the Channel, died after they were rescued.
Weather alerts remain in place, with strong winds expected throughout the night.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A “superstorm” is advancing on Alaska and expected to arrive Wednesday night 9 November, according to the US National Weather Service: “Damaging winds, coastal flooding, and blizzard conditions are among the expected impacts of a Bering Sea “superstorm” expected to slam into Alaska this evening.” Residents are being warned to take precautions, with most of the western edge of the state affected.
Source: US Weather Service, Alaska division
Swiss pumpkins
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Welcome to November weather a couple days early, with chilly days and nights forecast in the Lake Geneva region this weekend: highs of 11-14C and lows of 7-11C, with Sunday night slightly more clement than Friday and Saturday nights, according to Meteo Swiss.
The 12,000 people registered for the Lausanne Marathon will be keeping warm Sunday, so drivers should be aware that the lake road is closed from 07:30 to 17:00 Sunday, between Lausanne and La-Tour-de-Peilz while the race takes place. Public transport will continue to operate in the area.
Lausanne is also host to a pumpkin carving fair Sunday, or, if you’re getting fired up about Christmas, the notable Schilliger Garden Centre Christmas markets are open Saturday, two of the many events that are listed as a regular feature of GenevaLunch.
Saturday night reminder: turn your clocks back one hour as we move off summer time, also known as daylight savings time.
screen shots, new "my weather" worldwide service (source: Apple iTunes)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Hong Kong Observatory launched a new mobile app, “my weather”, Monday 10 October, designed to help travellers quickly find the official weather report for their area, anywhere in the world.
The new app features the World Weather Information Service (WWIS) and is the world’s first-ever location-specific weather service providing official city weather forecasts around the world for people on the move, says Geneva-based WMO.
The free app has location-based technology that detects the user’s location and it automatically displays the latest official weather forecasts and climatological information of the city nearest to the user.
“It provides a quick search function that allows users to obtain the latest official weather information from over 1,400 cities around the world. The application also enables users to create bookmarks for easy access to weather forecasts for cities of their choice in the future,” according to WMO.
The new app can be downloaded at http://itunes.apple.com/
Ed. note: I just downloaded and used it – up came Swiss, Italian and German cities, since it uses cities in a 200km range. Weather forecast is equally gloomy in all areas.
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.
Aminona, near Crans-Montana, with snow down to 1,400 metres 8 October 2011
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The season’s first real snowfall has hit the entire Swiss Alps, with a tailback of 7km at the northern entrance to the St Gotthard tunnel mid-afternoon Saturday, according to Touring Club Swiss’s real-time road advisory service.
Several Swiss cantons are taking their autumn week-long holiday starting this weekend.
The snow line (altitude at which snow is falling) varies between 1,100 and 1,500 metres Saturday afternoon.
The national weather service, MeteoSwiss, is predicting slightly warmer, mixed weather starting Sunday.
Warmer temperatures in Corvatsch, at 2,700m. The top picture shows the mountain range 20 September 20; the bottom shot was taken 24 September. Photo MeteoSwiss
SION, SWITZERLAND – Temperatures around Switzerland were higher than expected Monday 26 September, above 25C in several cities around the country.
According to the Swiss national weather service, MeteoSwiss, temperatures were well above the normal average of 20C on the plain and in many ski resorts above 1,000 metres.
Temperatures peeked at 25.1C in Sion, 25.6 in Basel and reached 25.4 in Lugano, canton Ticino.
“Although these temperatures are not exceptional, they represent a particularly hot month of September,” says a MeteoSwiss spokesperson. Temperatures for the month of September may break records in Sion and Lugano.
For many ski resorts in Switzerland, September 2011 will go down as one of the warmest in the last 150 years. At the Jungfraujoch and the Great St Bernard pass, temperatures were almost two degrees hotter than what they were in July.
MeteoSwiss expects that the same will be true for Geneva.
Max the Stork says summer is gone!
FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND – Max, the Swiss-born white stork who has been tracked for longer than any other bird in the wild, left her summer home in Tuefingen, Saturday 10 September.
The Fribourg Natural History Museum, which banded and tracks the bird, says that for the first time in her 13 years of winter migrations, she left together with her partner, the father of this year’s offspring.
Max winters in the south of Spain or sometimes Morocco and her migration will take about three weeks, with stopovers in France.
The band she is wearing now is four years old and was slightly damaged, according to the museum.
Tracking is not as constant as in the past, and it’s not clear at the moment where precisely the bird has gone.
Vinea wine festival, Sierre
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Temperatures are inching back up this weekend, with highs of 28C expected, but the warmer weather will bring some thundershowers with it in French-speaking Switzerland.
Central Switzerland is more likely to be dry and sunny, so if you’re up or hiking, head for Interlaken or Lucerne.
GenevaLunch will be publishing some suggestions for Swiss mountain hiking tomorrow, Friday 2 September. We will also publish a guide to visiting Vinea (see below).
Be sure to check out the GenevaLunch events calendar for a good weekend selection.
Two top alternatives for the weekend are:
- the Vinea wine festival in Sierre, Switzerland’s largest outdoor wine fair, with 150 producers from throughout the country presenting 1,500 wines, at an event that turns the main street of Sierre into a stream of white tents with a congenial crowd of 10,000 wine-lovers. Complete programme and details, Vinea (in English)
- Saturday, 3 September the Chateau de Chillon is offering a special astronomy observation event for CHF10 with special entrance price for children: a teleconference at 20:15 with astrophysicist Sylvia Ekstrom from the University of Geneva, in French, will be followed by an observation of the skies, with access to special instruments, at the foot of the castle: info@chillon.ch or telephone 021 966 8910 to register.
Update 21:50 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Expect change! Geneva Friday night is experiencing heavy storms, as they build up to the east. Trains on the Geneva-Lausanne run are suffering 15-20 minute delays and a tree has fallen on the tracks near Rolle, reports TSR. Valais police have sent out a news alert asking media to inform the public that the danger level is ex 4 out of 5, rather than 4 to 5 – and please, they ask, don’t phone the police for weather forecasts!
Meteoswiss, the national weather service, in May moved to a new system for danger alerts: 4 out of 5 is described as “a dangerous meteorological event is expected that is unusual for the season.”
The weekend weather will shift from Friday afternoon’s occasional bursts of sun to storms starting along the Jura, with hail expected in some areas and falling temperatures.
Weekend highs in the French-speaking part of Switzerland should be 20-22C with evening temperatures falling to 8C. Snow will fall down to 2,000 metres.
The Swiss Alps in canton Valais will have gusting winds but temperatures will be higher thanks to warm, dry foehn winds initially, followed by strong northwest winds in the mountains and breezes in the valleys.
Sunday should be clement, with sunshine and highs of 22C.
MOROCCO – At least 78 people were killed when a Moroccan military transport plane crashed into a mountain in the south of the country during bad weather, said the state news agency, MAP.
“Seventy-eight people were killed, and three were seriously injured following a crash, on Tuesday, of a C-130 aircraft of the Royal Armed Forces northeast the southern city of Guelmim,” the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) said in a statement to the state news agency.
King Mohammed VI sent messages of condolence to the families of the victims.
The crash is Morocco’s worst known air disaster since 1973, when 105 people were killed after a Royal Air Maroc aircraft crashed near the capital Rabat.
Further details: MAP.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – EPFL chose the right week to talk about a new field project, part of a larger study of how environment influences flood rates in mountain valleys.
Ticino and parts of Valais, including Zermatt, are worriedly watching rising waters from heavy summer storms.
The two-year-old project to better understand the hydrology of the Alps in order to reduce risks is run by EPFL’s Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory (Eflum). It has set up 25 ground weather stations in a 20 km2 area that covers a large part of the Val Ferret watershed. The goal is to improve methods for predicting natural disasters to better warn populations in risk zones. “Mathematical models exist, but they still don’t take into account all the data that are needed to establish reliable predictions, such as the influence of air temperature, the formation of thermal winds or the impact of precipitation,” says Marc Parlange, the EPFL professor who heads the lab.
The field project this summer has involved setting up several new tools: two weather stations on 10m towers, a weather balloon that will be regularly deployed, and three Lidars, laser-based instruments which will be used to take continuous wind data over a height of nearly 2 km.
Water and wind input are two key aspects being studied this summer. Val Ferrat was chosen because it was the rare valley to meet a specific set of requirements, says Raphaël Mutzner, the PhD student responsible for hydrologic modeling.
There were not many options, he points out.
Forecast is for more of the same
Update 14 July 10:00 ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Thunderstorms and heavy rains are taking their toll in central and eastern Switzerland, with emergency services taking calls for pleasure craft in trouble on the lakes, trees down on roads, cellars flooded.
Torrential rains in parts of Valais are prompting fears of flooding in Zermatt (video, 20 Minutes) and the A2 autoroute in Ticino was cut off between Lugano and Mendrisio by a mudslide late Wednesday.
In the Bernese Oberland the Schynige Platte rail line was cut off by fallen trees and 64 passengers had to be evacuated by helicopters.
Zurich has had the most rain, according to TSR, with 40cm/m2 at the airport.
MeteoSwiss is predicting more of the same until at least mid-day Thursday in western Switzerland and Saturday in the central and eastern parts of the country.
Photos below, taken from the same spot in Valais during one hour, show the rapidly changing weather in the Alps. Click on images to view larger.
Swiss Alpine storm pummels garden 13 July
Heavy sheets of rain swept across the Alps Wednesday
Val d'Anniviers, storms come to an end
Val d'Anniviers, end of storm 13 July 2011
Not a cloud in the sky - storms have moved on to eastern Switzerland
The clouds are not quite ready to call it a day! Hikers, beware.
Switzerland had 1.6 percent more cars in 2010 than in 2009, but gasoline consumption was down, in favour of diesel and renewable source products (here: electric car at the Grimsel pass)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland consumed 4.4 percent more energy in 2010, including a 4 percent increase for electricity, says the Swiss Federal Energy Office.
Three main factors contributed to the rise, it notes in a statement issued Tuesday 28 June: continuing population growth, economic growth with industrial consumption up, and colder weather than usual during the 2010-11 winter.
Degree-days of heating were up 12.7 percent compared to 2009. GDP grew 2.6 percent in 2010 compared to a fall of 1.9 percent the previous year. And the population grew 1 percent during the year, with 1.6 percent more vehicle owners.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – One young man has died and a second has been rescued by an emergency team on the Aiguille de Midi in the Chamonix region of France, the Tribune de Geneve reports. The newspaper was told by Chamonix police that the two 19-year-olds were climbing the north face of the Aiguille de Midi Tuesday, when they ran into trouble with the weather. They contacted the mountain patrol and were told to stay put for a second night Wednesday, due to weather conditions.
For reasons that are unclear one of them then fell 400 metres to his death and the other contacted the French patrol service Thursday with the news. A foot patrol set out to find them but failed, due to weather and it was 02:00 Thursday before the survivor was picked up by helicopter.
Details have not been provided about where the two young men are from.
vines ripening above Sierre, in late summer
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A note to GenevaLunch visitors: the four-day Ascension weekend taken by many Swiss businesses has begun. The cold rainy weather will give way to warmer temperatures and partly sunny skies starting Thursday 2 June. This is a popular holiday for travelling inside Switzerland, so traffic will be heavy frequently, not just during the peak travel times for European’s who are crossing the country as they take the long weekend.
Temperatures are expected to rise to 20-23C for the highs in western Switzerland, with lows of 8-9C.
A reminder for air travellers: Wednesday 1 June is the first day of the new Swiss rules on duty free: you can now purchase duty free goods on arrival as well as when leaving the country. You can order your goods online, in advance, and the shops are open from 06:00 to 23:00 seven days a week. Details on Genève Aéroport‘s duty free pages.
Canton Valais, Switzerland’s largest wine-producing region, is holding its open days 2-4 June. The canton is noted for its spectacular Alpine vineyards along the banks of the Rhone and the rich variety of its wine grapes. Details in French; GenevaLunch will provide suggestions and more information Thursday.
Tour de Romandie finishes with glorious weather as partner
Weather forecast: brief rain, spot of frost, then warmer and sunny again
Sunny finish for Tour de Romandie winner (photo ©2011 Samuel Jacquet, flickr.com/photos/sam-s-place/with/5681965676/ )
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The rain is finally falling Tuesday morning 3 May, giving a reprieve after the spectacularly dry April in the Lake Geneva region, but weather forecasters warn it will be shortlived: expect showers to end late Tuesday, with only occasional rain along mountain ridges in the next two days. Some areas will be hit by ground frost Thursday, then temperatures will climb to highs of 24-25C with sunshine for the weekend.
Australian cyclist wins Tour, with Brit taking the day in Geneva
The Tour de Romandie finished in Geneva Sunday in a burst of fine weather, with Australian Cadel Evans taking the title for the second time, while British cyclist Ben Swift won Sunday’s leg of the race.
Lausanne’s popular 10 and 20-km runs celebrated their 30th anniversary Saturday. The evening run pulled in an estimated crowd of 18,000 participants. One of the corporate groups that took part did, not surprisingly, unusually well: the Lausanne-based governing body of athletics on the continent, European Athletics, sent a team of seven, who “finished high in the rankings”.
Army continues to fight Visp fire
Visp, Valais forest fire 1 May (click on imge to view larger)
The forest fire in Visp in canton Valais, at the edge of a vast Alpine forest area that stretches to Zermatt and beyond, was still smoldering Sunday 1 May, despite continual flyovers by helicopters dumping buckets of water on embers.
The army Monday morning sent in a Super Puma to step up the fight against the fire, after unrolling 2,700 metres of hosepipe to help local firefighters and dumping 400 tons of water on the area by the end of the week. The army also kept traffic and the curious moving Sunday, on the busy stretch of road, but by Tuesday the army presence was down from 120 soldiers to 70 in the area.
The forest rises steeply behind the body shop on the cantonal highway where the fire started, and much of the area cannot be easily accessed on foot.
The fire was caught early enough to prevent total destruction to the forest, but the full damage is likely to be apparent only later in the year, as some of the trees and plant life die off due to damage.
Authorities are concerned that the fire will be sparked anew by the extremely dry conditions.
