Lots of fresh snow affects road traffic in the Alps
Published: Sunday, Dec 22nd 2024, 19:30
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Heavy snowfall caused disruption to road traffic in the Swiss Alps from Sunday morning. In front of the north portal of the Gotthard tunnel, the police had to stop traffic on the highway several times for hours to clear the snow.
On Sunday afternoon, there was a traffic jam up to seven kilometers long in the canton of Uri between the Altdorf and Göschenen junctions. The Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) also reported an obstruction due to snowfall on the San Bernardino route. And the A 9 was closed in both directions for trailer trucks and articulated lorries on the Simplon Pass due to snowfall.
The cantonal police of Uri directed vehicles heading south from the Gotthard highway in Silenen this afternoon. They were told to drive via the San Bernardino route. The reason for this was heavy snowfall and the fact that many foreign vehicles were on the road with summer tires. Vehicles were repeatedly parked at right angles to the direction of travel, as a spokesman for the Uri cantonal police told the Keystone-SDA news agency.
Increased avalanche danger
The federal government warned of considerable danger in large parts of the Alps due to snow on roads between Sunday and Tuesday and of avalanche danger level 3 (considerable) and level 4 (high) for Valais, the northern Alpine ridge and the Gotthard region.
The weather services had announced the arrival of a cold front in Switzerland for Sunday - with snowfall in some places down to the lowlands and valleys.
The Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) reported fresh snow of 30 to 50 centimetres and even more in some places for the western Bernese Oberland, the western Uri Oberland and the Glarus hinterland.
The Vallascia measuring station of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) recorded 39 centimetres of fresh snow in the last 24 hours on Sunday afternoon. There - at an altitude of around 2300 meters - the snow depth was already 84 centimeters. This measuring station is located above Airolo IT in the Gotthard region.
By Christmas Eve, meteorologists expect up to 125 centimetres of snow within 75 hours in central areas of the Alps.
Storm over the Central Plateau
A strong westerly wind swept across the Swiss Plateau on Sunday morning. The storm was strongest in Grenchen in the canton of Solothurn with 95 kilometers per hour (km/h). However, 60 to 90 km/h were also measured in the rest of the Central Plateau. Even stronger than in the lowlands was the storm in Altdorf in the Reuss valley in Uri with 99 km/h.
©Keystone/SDA
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