Fri, Nov 17th 2023
The strongest autumn storm of the season so far swept across Switzerland on Friday night with gale-force winds of up to 170 kilometers per hour. In central Switzerland, Zurich and eastern Switzerland, the emergency services were called out dozens of times. There were no injuries.
“Frederico” brought gale-force winds of 171 km/h on the Säntis, as MeteoSwiss reported this morning on the short message service X, formerly Twitter. On the Uetliberg near Zurich, 133 km/h were measured, on the Hörnli in the Zurich Oberland 134 km/h. There were wind peaks of 135 km/h on the Napf and 152 km/h on the Bernese Bantiger.
But the storm also blew fiercely in the lowlands: according to MeteoSwiss, the gust peaks in Lucerne and Bern were in the top 10 of the highest wind speeds ever measured at 118 and 102 km/h respectively. In Plaffeien FR and Egolzwil LU, 111 km/h were measured, in Steckborn TG 105 km/h and in Zurich 100 km/h.
In the canton of Zurich, Schutz und Rettung had to be called out around 100 times due to fallen trees, as reported by the service on X. Around 20 operations were in the city of Zurich. The control center was operated with additional personnel during the most intensive phase. There were no reports of major damage caused by the storm early on Friday morning.
Numerous reports of fallen trees were also received in eastern Switzerland. The St. Gallen cantonal police recorded around 25 operations in connection with the storm, as they told the Keystone-SDA news agency on request.
The picture was similar in the canton of Thurgau. The operations center there received almost 30 reports in connection with the storm. 20 of these involved fallen trees. In Schwellbrun AR, a power line was damaged, which led to a temporary power outage. In the Schaffhausen municipalities of Bargen, Beggingen, Merishausen and Schleitheim, the power also went out at times on Friday night due to “Frederico”. There were no reports of injuries until early Friday morning.
Meanwhile, the Lucerne police reported 46 reports received on X, again due to fallen trees and building barriers as well as fallen branches. There were no reports of injuries here either.
©Keystone/SDA
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