Swiss storm costs biggest in 20 years

Storms led to costs of almost one billion euros in 2024 Keystone-SDA

In 2024, severe weather claimed more Swiss lives than any other year for a quarter of a century. In addition, debris flows, floods, rockfalls and landslides caused damage totalling CHF904 million - more than at any time since 2005.

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This is the result of an analysis of the storm damage database published on Wednesday by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).

WSL lists a total of 13 storm-related fatalities for 2024. The last time there were higher numbers of victims was in 2000, when a total of 20 people lost their lives in storms in Switzerland.

As with the long-term average, most of the damage in 2024 occurred during the summer months. What was special, however, according to the report, was that almost 85% of the annual damage was concentrated in the month of June. Most of this was accounted for by the major storms in Misox, Valais and Ticino on June 21, 29 and 30.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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