The government has warned that large parts of southern Switzerland and some mountain areas on the north side of the Alps could be hit by flooding or landslides this weekend.
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The national weather service has forecast heavy rain for a 24-period beginning in the early hours of Saturday.
The areas expected to be most greatly affected are the southern canton of Ticino, towns and villages near the Simplon and Gotthard passes, the upper Rhone valley and the part of the Bernese Alps that includes international resorts like Grindelwald and Wengen.
The risk alert for flooding of the Rhone river and Lake Maggiore has been placed at level two – which equates to the kind of natural disaster that occurs on average every two to ten years.
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Swiss learn lessons from 2005 floods
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In the best case scenario – supposing a strong reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades – temperatures would still rise by nearly two degrees celsius by the end of the century. In the worst case, average seasonal temperatures would rise by nearly five degrees. Using a new generation of global and European-scale…
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Heavy rainfall and flooding in Bern as well as east and central Switzerland in August 2005 caused heavy damage amounting to SFr2.5 billion.
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