Föhn storm over – but problems on the roads and railways continue
Published: Monday, Apr 1st 2024, 16:30
العودة إلى البث المباشر
After the end of the Föhn storm over the Alps, several railroads in Switzerland were able to resume operations on Easter Monday. Some closed roads were also reopened. However, the Simplon Pass road is still closed and the Furka car transport service will not reopen until Tuesday morning at the earliest.
The Andermatt - Tschamut-Selva line on the Oberalp Pass is one of the rail connections that reopened on Easter Monday. Operations had been suspended on Sunday. Most of the trains in the Jungfrau region of the Bernese Oberland were also running again after the end of the strong Föhn winds over the Easter weekend.
The road into the Calanca Valley in south-western Graubünden was also cleared. Due to the heavy rainfall, the authorities had closed this road on Sunday for safety reasons. And on Monday evening, the authorities in the Saas Valley wanted to reopen the link between Stalden VS and Saas-Grund.
The Furka car transport, on the other hand, remains closed because the access road between Hospental and Realp on the Uri side of the pass is at risk of avalanches and is therefore closed.
In Graubünden, the Bernina line of the Rhaetian Railway between Pontresina and Poschiavo will remain closed until further notice for safety reasons. As the road is also closed, no replacement buses can be used, the company announced. In addition, a landslide has occurred near Cadera, which has buried the railroad line.
The Bernina line is closed between Poschiavo and Tirano in Italy due to the risk of falling rocks. However, rail replacement buses are running between these towns.
Enormous amount of rain in Ticino
On Easter Monday morning, SRF Meteo measured fairly strong winds in the south of Switzerland. Gusts reached 98 km/h in Lugano. On the Gornergrat VS and the Weissfluhjoch GR, the weather service measured speeds of 105 km/h, while on the Moléson in the canton of Fribourg, the wind was gusting at 101 km/h.
But then the Föhn collapsed, as Roger Perret from the Meteonews weather service said on Monday afternoon on request. On the Gornergrat near Zermatt, it was only blowing at 18 kilometers per hour in the afternoon and on Monte Generoso in Ticino at 40 to 50 km/h. Perret assumed that the rainfall in Ticino would come to an end on Tuesday night.
Between the night of Good Friday and Easter Monday, however, enormous amounts of rain fell in Ticino. In Mogogno TI in the Onsernone Valley, for example, more than 250 millimetres of rain fell, which corresponds to 250 liters per square metre.
According to Meteonews, a long-term average of 100 to 140 liters can be expected in northern Ticino throughout March. However, the 159 liters measured in Locarno-Monti also significantly exceeded the March norm. It is 96 liters.
Parts of Valais and Uri also received a lot of rain. In Simplon-Dorf VS, for example, 152 millimetres of rain were measured between Good Friday morning and Easter Monday morning. On the Göscheneralp UR it was 136 millimetres.
Benches in the water on Lake Maggiore
The heavy rain caused the water levels of the lakes in Ticino to swell. According to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the level of Lake Maggiore rose by around one meter between Holy Saturday and Easter Monday afternoon, as can be seen from data on the FOEN website.
SRF Meteo showed a video on the short news platform X showing benches near Locarno standing in lake water. However, the federal government only spoke of a moderate risk of flooding in the areas with the most precipitation. And according to the FOEN forecast, the level of Lake Lago Maggiore is likely to peak as early as Tuesday night.
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