Swiss heatwave lasts longer and affects more regions

Heatwave lasts longer and affects more and more regions Keystone-SDA

The heatwave has been gripping Switzerland for some time and is affecting more and more regions. The government has issued a warning and raised the danger level from 3 to 4, meaning “high danger”. No relief from the heat is expected until Monday.

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The warnings issued by the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) apply to low-lying areas below 800 metres in the north and below 600 metres in the south, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

According to MeteoSwiss, temperatures will reach 34°C to 37°C in many areas until next Monday – and until Sunday on the southern side of the Alps – with maximum temperatures expected to rise slightly from Thursday onwards. At night, temperatures will drop to between 16°C and 20°C, rising to between 18°C and 23°C from Thursday to Monday. The government warns that this will make the heat even more intense.

Consequently, the heat warning in regions stretching from the Central Plateau to the southern foothills of the Jura and the Upper Rhine, as well as in the Rhine Valley, has been raised from level 3 to level 4 from Thursday.

A level 4 heatwave warning is already in place in the regions around the lakes of the western plateau, in northwestern Switzerland and in central Valais. In the remaining regions below 800 metres on the northern side of the Alps and below 600 metres on the southern side of the Alps, a level 3 heat warning (“significant risk”) is in force.

MeteoSwiss points out that, as a general rule, night-time temperatures in urban areas are several degrees higher than in rural areas due to the urban heat island effect.

Northern Switzerland – from Aargau through the cantons of Lucerne, Zurich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau, as well as parts of St Gallen and the Appenzell region – is currently struggling with severe drought; to a lesser extent, central and southeastern Switzerland are also affected. As a result, a partial ban on water abstraction from streams, rivers and ponds has been in force in Thurgau since Friday. On Tuesday, canton St Gallen also restricted the abstraction of water from surface waters.

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Translated from German, sub-edited by ts