Cluster: Science

Ski resorts given gift of white Christmas

This content was published on Dec 22, 2011 More than half a metre of fresh snow has fallen in some parts of the Swiss Alps since Tuesday. After a dry autumn that was the second warmest on record, wet weather – and with it snow in higher regions – returned in the first week of December. Many ski areas including popular resorts like…

Climate solutions

2011 hottest year on record

This content was published on Dec 20, 2011 Average temperatures were the highest since records began in 1864, it said. The year was also notable for being particularly dry across the entire country. It was the hottest spring on record, with temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s recorded in Basel and Ticino in April. Summer meanwhile was characterised by changeable conditions…

Joachim lashes Switzerland

This content was published on Dec 16, 2011 Western Switzerland was particularly badly hit. The Swiss meteorological office described it as one of the most powerful storms in the last ten years. It said it was exceptional because it lasted so long, with winds of between 40 and 60 kilometers an hour for more than 12 hours. The strongest gusts were measured on the…

Storm Joachim arrives in Switzerland

This content was published on Dec 16, 2011 A low pressure system has been making its way down from northern France and Germany, and should reach its peak in Switzerland by the end of Friday morning. The Swiss national weather service told the Swiss News Agency that gusts at speeds of 120km/h had been measured in the Bernese Jura overnight. Also in the…

Climate solutions

Andes reach for the rain, says geologist

This content was published on Dec 15, 2011 The result is that the western side of the central Andes is a flat dry slope, while the eastern side is verdant and hilly – similar to central Switzerland’s Napf region. Fritz Schlunegger of Bern University teamed up with Kevin Norton of New Zealand to discover that the interaction between tectonic uplift and erosion is…

Climate solutions

White magic

This content was published on Dec 14, 2011 A winter’s day in Switzerland can provide snow in many different variations – soft, crunchy or artifical. (Pictures: Keystone, Ex-press, Reuters)

Wild bison breeding catches on in Switzerland

This content was published on Dec 13, 2011 Visitors do double takes when they first see the burly, hump-backed creatures grazing in the fields not far from Geneva’s airport, against the snow-capped backdrop of the Jura mountains and the Alps. But the bison have become an ingrained, if unconventional, part of the village’s agricultural scene. While still far from being a mainstream item…

Climate solutions

PlanetSolar prepares to enter pirate waters

This content was published on Dec 11, 2011 Project founder and crew member Raphaël Domjan talks to swissinfo.ch about the amazing welcome the boat has received so far and the huge challenges ahead as they prepare to cross the pirate-infested Arabian Sea. The SFr16 million ($17.3 million) MS TÛRANOR PlanetSolar, which sails under a Swiss flag, is the world’s largest vessel of its kind…

Climate solutions

Swiss call for more climate commitment

This content was published on Dec 8, 2011 “The current regime, building on a simplistic distinction between developed countries with specific obligations and developing countries without such obligations, is clearly no solution to today’s challenge,” said Leuthard, speaking at the United Nations Climate Conference in Durban. There she has met several environment ministers from Europe, Africa and Asia. “Today, many developing countries have…

Climate solutions

Snow saves ski season start

This content was published on Dec 7, 2011 MeteoSwiss, the national weather service, expects around 70 centimetres by the end of the week. The snow line is between 800 and 1,500 metres above sea level, Jacques Ambühl from MeteoSwiss told the Swiss News Agency. The reason is a milder air from the Atlantic, which alternates with Polar Easterlies. “The situation has eased,” Ambühl…

Cluster: Science

Popular Stories

Most Discussed