Heavy thunderstorms sweep across Switzerland
Published: Monday, Sep 2nd 2024, 13:02
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The meteorological start of autumn on Sunday brought not only heat but also heavy thunderstorms to Switzerland. Meteorologists counted more than 50,000 flashes of lightning. There were initially no reports of casualties.
Around 57,000 flashes of lightning were registered throughout Switzerland, SRF Meteo wrote on its website on Monday. This would have been an extraordinary number even for a midsummer's day, emphasized the weather desk of Swiss radio and television.
The most lightning was recorded in the canton of Zurich, followed by the cantons of Lucerne and St. Gallen, according to the weather service Meteonews.
There was also hail and heavy gusts of wind in many places. SRF Meteo reported a gust of 96 kilometers per hour in Koppigen BE. Wind speeds of more than 85 kilometers per hour were reported in Schmerikon SG, Cham ZG and Quinten SG.
Lots of rain
The amount of rain was also considerable. In Zwillikon/ZH, Wädenswil/ZH and Cham/ZG, more than 55 millimetres of precipitation fell in one hour. This corresponds to around a third of the monthly total.
In the canton of Zug alone, 250 reports were received by the police due to the thunderstorm on Sunday evening. Garages, cellars and laundry rooms were flooded with water in the city of Zug and in the municipalities of Baar, Cham, Steinhausen, Neuheim and Hünenberg, they reported on Monday.
A car got stuck in an underpass in Baar. The driver and a small child who was in the car with her were rescued by the fire department.
Fallen trees
There was also a debris flow on the Aegeristrasse in Baar. In Cham, Neuheim, Steinhausen and Walchwil, fallen trees and building barriers blocked individual roads.
22 fire departments were deployed, mostly due to fallen trees and blown-over building site barriers, it was reported. Some cellars and underpasses had to be pumped out.
The Lucerne police received around 90 emergency calls. The majority of these came from the municipalities of Ruswil, Inwil and Eschenbach, as reported by the Lucerne public prosecutor's office on Monday. The majority of the calls were about buried roads and water entering houses. In some cases, damage to roofs was also reported.
There was also storm damage in the east of Bern: the Bern fire department reported 150 operations during the night of the thunderstorm. According to the information provided, the majority of the operations concerned the municipality of Ostermundigen. As elsewhere, cellars and parking garages were flooded in the Bern region. The fire department also had to secure trees and parts of buildings.
©Keystone/SDA
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