Forecasters predict cold winter

The coming winter will be one of the coldest in five years, according to the Federal Meteorology and Climatology Office, MeteoSwiss.

Meteorologist Stephan Bader told the SonntagsZeitung that their forecasting model had shown that the average temperature would be -0.3 degrees Celsius this winter.

The news comes amid a drop in temperatures and heavy snowfall in many places in Switzerland

“In the past five years we have not had similar clear forecasts showing a ‘cold’ tendency,” Bader said. Previous forecasts have been “mild” or “medium”.

But a cold prognosis does not mean a record winter, warned Bader, as the model cannot predict how far temperatures will drop.

Calculations take into account changes in ocean temperature as well as long-term average temperatures at weather stations.

Snowfall is also not possible to predict, but Bader pointed out that very cold winters can mean less snow, particularly in the mountains.

The accuracy of the prognosis is between 55 and 60 per cent.