Some towns across Switzerland experienced their coldest night of the year coming into Saturday as snowstorms blanketed much of the country.
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The mercury dropped to -13.9 Celsius in Grenchen, canton Solothurn, and to -14.4-degrees Celsius in Aigle, canton Vaud, after a cold air mass settled in behind storms that left many European flights grounded.
The coldest temperature of the year still belongs to La Brévine in the Jura Mountains, where the thermometer has fallen to -31.4 degrees.
National television forecasters at SF Meteo said as much as 35cm of snow fell during the night across the country’s central plateau. Nearly three metres fell on the Säntis, a mountain south of St Gallen.
Geneva airport had about 15cm on its runways. There were about 18cm on Zurich’s. Airports in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy were also wrestling with snow. At noon on Saturday, at least two flights from London into Geneva had been cancelled.
MeteoSwiss announced earlier this week that chances for a white Christmas in Switzerland this year are “seldom this good”.
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