Switzerland escapes deluge

Rain fell as snow above 2,300 metres and it's only August Keystone

For the past week it has rained almost non-stop in Switzerland, but the country has so far escaped the flooding experienced by some of its European neighbours.

However there have been unseasonably high levels of rainfall across the country.

Mountain areas are worst affected where two-thirds of the August average has already fallen. But the lowlands have also had their fair share of the downpour with more than half of the August average falling between the start of the month and last weekend.

“We’ve had really high amounts of precipitation over the last three days in the southern part of the country and in the Valais region,” Galden Truog, a forecaster at the Swiss Meteorological Office, told swissinfo

Truog explained that between 40 and 80 mm had fallen in the valley and lowland areas with up to 120mm or 120 litres per square metre in the Alps, falling as snow over 2,300 metres.

All over Switzerland rivers are swollen and there’s an increased risk of flooding. The Bernese Oberland, Central Switzerland and the Eastern region of Graubünden are worst affected.

Lucky escape

But Truog says the country has had a lucky escape unlike some of its European neighbours, such as Austria, where there’s widespread flooding around the scenic Danube River.

“The heavy rain stopped just in time in Switzerland,” he says. “The rivers were well on the way to becoming dangerous so we were very lucky.”

Although more rain cannot be ruled out over the coming week, Truog says that it should stay dry until the weekend, giving the soaked earth a chance to dry out.

“We can expect a quiet week [on the rain front,]” he predicts. “It’s a good development but beyond that, who can say? It’s impossible to give an accurate forecast for more than five days.”

Waterlogged farms

The wet weather has had devastating effects on Swiss farmers, many of whom are battling the elements to save some of their crops.

“This year is exceptional because it has rained for 15 days consecutively,” Hubert Pauchard from canton Fribourg’s agricultural monitoring office told swissinfo.

“Below 600 metres the harvest is almost finished,” he adds. “But above this level the cereal crops are ruined.”

In and around the Three Lakes region in western Switzerland, vegetable crops have also been wiped out by flooding as vegetables cannot survive for more then 24 hours in waterlogged conditions.

Furthermore it is impossible to save the crops by harvesting them straight away as it will take three to five days for the ground to dry out. Also, farmers cannot work in the fields if the earth is sodden.

However, all is not lost as the potato and beetroot crops can tolerate the increased amount of water and grass crops used for animal fodder respond well to the heavy rain.

The conditions are also perfect for mushrooms which grow well in the damp forests.

Tourism wash-out?

It’s not just farmers though who are suffering because of the heavy rain, many holiday makers have been disappointed by the wet weather. However it’s still to early to tell if the heavy rainfall has had a negative impact on Switzerland’s lucrative tourist industry.

Claudia Zimmermann from Hotelplan, one of Switzerland’s leading travel agents, told swissinfo that her company does not accept bad weather as a reason to cancel holiday bookings.

However, concessions have already been made in some Swiss resorts because of the wet weather. In some mountain resorts, spas and indoor swimming pools have had to reduce their prices and some sports centres have put on special activity programmes for children.

swissinfo