Swiss government warns of severe heatwave

Federal government warns of considerable heat risk for the whole week Keystone-SDA

The Swiss government continues to warn of considerable danger due to the heat for the entire week. On Monday, it declared a danger level 3 out of 5 for parts of western Switzerland and Ticino – in other words: considerable danger.

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Affected by the warning are the Lake Geneva region, the Lower Valais, the Three-Lakes region, the Broye in Fribourg and, in the first half of the week, Ticino, according to the federal government’s natural hazards portal. Danger level 3 is declared if the average daily temperature is expected to exceed 25 degrees for more than three consecutive days.

According to MeteoSwiss, the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, maximum temperatures of 32 to 37 degrees with a humidity of 35-50% must be expected in the affected regions below 800 metres above sea level by Sunday evening. The minimum temperatures at night will be between 17 and 23 degrees. There is no or moderate danger for the rest of Switzerland.

However, temperatures could also rise to 35 degrees in the Central Plateau. The private weather service Meteonews is forecasting the highest temperatures for Wednesday. Geneva is then expecting 37 degrees.

High risk of forest fires in Valais

At the same time, there is a high risk of forest fires in parts of Valais. In the Visp Valley, Simplon Nord and the Lötschberg south ramp, the federal government has even declared the highest danger level 5.

At this danger level, there is a risk of very hot fires, large-scale crown fires or flying fires over long distances, according to the federal government’s natural hazards portal. Fires could break out at any time and spread very quickly over long periods of time. For this reason, no fires should be lit outdoors.

In Sion-Sierre, Nicolai, Binn and Saas in Valais, the danger is also high at warning level 4, while in the rest of the canton the forest fire danger is still considerable at level 3. This also applies to other cantons such as Aargau, Basel, parts of the cantons of Bern, Solothurn, Lucerne and Zurich.

This short video looks at the top three climate-related risks in Switzerland in the coming decades.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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