Swiss mountain tops set record temperatures

Rising temperatures are not sparing even high-altitude areas Keystone-SDA

Now even the mountains are sweating. Weather stations on the Jungfraujoch, the Säntis, the Great St Bernard Pass and the Grimsel Pass set new daily temperature records on Monday.

At the Jungfraujoch in the canton of Valais, at 3,571 metres above sea level, the temperature rose to 8 degrees Celcius, as reported by MeteoSwiss. The previous record of 7.8 degrees was set in 2009.

Previous records were also broken on the Säntis mountain (2,501 metres) and at the Col du Grand St-Bernard (2,472 metres). The weather station on Säntis recorded 16.3 degrees, surpassing the 1949 record of 16.2 degrees.

At the Great St Bernard Pass, 17.3 degrees was recorded, breaking the previous high set in 1869 (17.1 degrees). At Grimsel Hospiz (1,980 metres), the temperature reached 20 degrees – 1.7 degrees higher than the previous record set in 2009.

Payerne in canton Vaud set a new record of 32.2 degrees. Other record highs for July 13 were recorded in Altdorf (29.5 degrees), Grächen (26.7 degrees), Elm (26.6 degrees), Davos (25.8 degrees), La Chaux-de-Fonds (28.0 degrees), Meiringen (29.5 degrees) and St Gallen (27.3 degrees).

There is currently a high risk of forest fires in many parts of Switzerland. In the cantons of Graubünden and Valais, the risk level is at its highest in some areas. Fire bans are in force in all cantons.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.