Switzerland on course for record-breaking summer
So far, the summer of 2026 has been at least as hot as the record-breaking summer of 2003. The Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, said in response to an enquiry that at some stations the number of hot days has already exceeded that of 2003.
“2003 was an extreme outlier,” wrote MeteoSwiss on Tuesday in response to an enquiry from the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. Such events are now becoming more likely due to global warming. Nevertheless, the summer of 2026 should also be classified as exceptional, it said.
Both summers were characterised by several heatwaves. Unlike in 2003, when the hottest conditions occurred in August, measuring stations have already recorded new records for daily maximum temperatures in June this year, MeteoSwiss said.
It is still too early to make a definitive assessment of the year as a whole. However, MeteoSwiss expects 2026 to be among the warmest years since records began.
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