Onset of winter in Switzerland just in time for the start of Advent
Published: Sunday, Dec 3rd 2023, 15:30
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Just in time for the first weekend of Advent, winter really arrived in large parts of Switzerland. However, the white splendor was not to everyone's delight: it led to traffic accidents and problems with rail and even air traffic.
Numerous flights to Munich had to be canceled on Saturday because flight operations there had been suspended due to the snow. At least 15 centimetres of snow also fell at Zurich-Kloten Airport on Saturday night. This led to more than 40 flights being canceled. There were also delays as aircraft had to be de-iced.
In addition to air traffic, rail services also came to a standstill over the weekend. In many places, fallen trees or the masses of snow disrupted normal operations. For example, the Zurich-Munich line between St. Margrethen SG and Munich was interrupted. In addition, traffic at Rorschach SG station was restricted on Sunday due to a catenary fault and trains also stopped running between Kreuzlingen TG and Constance. Rail traffic between Schaffhausen and Singen in Germany was also disrupted due to a fallen tree.
In Graubünden, too, various Rhaetian Railway lines were partially interrupted or only partially accessible until midday on Sunday. Replacement services were not possible everywhere. In the Bern and Lucerne regions, fallen trees interrupted regional rail services in three places on Saturday. The Bern-Schwarzenburg and Belp-Thun S-Bahn lines and the Langnau i. E. BE-Lucerne line near Wolhusen LU were affected.
Drifting on the Schwägalp
As expected, motorists also skidded on the snow-covered roads. In the cantons of Bern and Zurich alone, there were around 200 accidents between Friday and midday on Saturday, as the two cantonal police forces reported on Sunday afternoon at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. There were 150 accidents on the roads in Zurich. There were only very few injuries. The cantonal police in Bern received 125 reports, 49 of which involved accidents. There was one case of injury.
However, some drivers deliberately wanted to skid and drove their cars to Schwägalp UR to drift. The Appenzell Ausserrhoden cantonal police carried out traffic checks on the Schwägalp and Schwägalpstrasse during the two nights and reported over 20 people for various traffic violations in connection with drifting, as the cantonal police announced on Sunday.
Situations had arisen in which other road users had been endangered and engines had been revved unnecessarily, resulting in a lot of noise. The majority of the people checked were aged between 18 and 30 and lived in the cantons of Zurich, Thurgau, St. Gallen, Glarus and the two cantons of Appenzell.
Others did not take safety so seriously at the weekend and simply drove off in their snow-covered cars. This was the case in St. Gallen, for example, where 19 charges were brought against drivers. In most cases, the snow was more than 20 centimetres deep, according to the city police. One car roof had a snow load of 35 centimetres. The drivers were allowed to continue driving after the car roof had been cleaned.
Exceptional snowfall in eastern Switzerland
According to MeteoSwiss, the amount of snowfall in eastern Switzerland was exceptional for December. According to the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss), Saturday's snowfall at the measuring stations in Zurich-Fluntern, Elm GL and Chur was even a record for the first third of December. In Zurich-Fluntern 26 centimetres were recorded, in Elm 48 and in Chur 28. St. Gallen missed the record of 31 centimetres by just one centimetre.
According to MeteoSwiss, the combination of a southerly high-altitude current of moist Mediterranean air with colder polar air coming from the north was responsible for the heavy snowfall. This resulted in up to 70 centimetres of snow in central Grisons and half a meter elsewhere. In the rest of the Alps, it was 20 to 40 centimetres. But snow also fell in the lowlands - up to 25 centimetres in the east.
In the lowlands, there was also a bitterly cold night in places. According to Meteonews, the temperature in Zurich-Kloten dropped to minus 12.9 degrees. The last time it was this cold was on February 14, 2021. The lowest temperature in the monitoring network was minus 22.9 degrees in Buffalora in the municipality of GR. Samedan GR and La Brévine NE also recorded temperatures above minus 20 degrees (-21.1 and -20.6 degrees respectively).
On Sunday afternoon there were warnings for strong winds in the cantons of Glarus, Graubünden, Jura, Neuchâtel, St. Gallen, Uri and Vaud.
©Keystone/SDA
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