Record lows set two nights in a row

Temperatures fell to a new record low for the second consecutive night in Switzerland after the mercury sank to –32.5 degrees early Sunday morning.

This time the coldest temperature of the winter so far was set at 7am in La Brévine in canton Neuchâtel.

The village tucked in the Jura mountains is sometimes called the Siberia of Switzerland for its frigid microclimate. The all-time low occurred there in January 1987, when residents had to endure –41.8 degrees.

Sunday’s record beat one set only the night before in eastern Switzerland, where temperatures in Samedan, canton Graubünden, dropped to –29.3 degrees.

Many areas are also reporting well above average snowfall. But Andreas Asch, a meteorologist with the Swiss national weather service, said historical statistics actually show the winter isn’t as extraordinary as it might seem.

“There hasn’t been a winter so white since the 1990s,” said Asch. “That’s why there’s this impression that it’s exceptional. People aren’t used to it.”