Mercury, ozone levels and forest fire risk all high
A thermometer points well into the red in the vineyards of Sion, canton Valais. Record temperatures for the year were recorded around the country on Saturday with Basel and Sion both hitting 37.2 degrees Celsius. In the greater Zurich area it was up to 35 degrees.
The highest ever recorded temperature in Switzerland was during the “summer of the century” in 2003 when it reached 41.5 degrees in Grono, canton Graubünden.
On Saturday the Federal Office for the Environment said there was a “considerable risk” of forest fires in cantons Aargau, Bern, Jura, St Gallen and Solothurn.
In addition, ozone levels were in some areas well above the 120 micrograms per cubic metre which the environment office considers “harmful for health and the environment”.
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