At the beginning of November, heat records across the Swiss mountains were broken with some ski resorts reporting double-digit temperatures. On November 1, only the highest peaks in Switzerland had temperatures lower than freezing.
According to MeteoSwiss, the start of the month saw temperature records smashed across the Swiss Alps. A wave of warm air passing through the mountains sent the mercury skyward, even at the highest peaks.
On November 1, the highest zero-degree limit ever recorded in November was measured, eclipsing the previous record set in 2015. Last Friday, you would have to ascend to an altitude of 4.284 metres above sea level to find temperatures below freezing, meaning snow was melting on the summits of Jungfrau, Mönch, Eiger and Klein Matterhorn.
Temperature records fell across the mountains. Jungfraujoch reported average temperatures of 4,8 degrees last Friday, the first November day ever reported when temperatures on the mountain didn't drop below freezing. In what will be poor news for those hoping for an early start to the Swiss ski season, 12,7-degree heat was recorded at the 2.691-metre high Weissfluhjoch in Davos.
The warm conditions reported in the Alps are yet another signal of ongoing climate change, which makes freak temperatures and weather events all the more likely. An October report from the United Nations found that if “current policies” are rolled out as planned, the world would warm up by 3,1 degrees by the end of the decade, more than double the 1,5-degree target. The impact of a 3-degree rise has been described as “catastrophic.”
Switzerland is particularly susceptible to climate change: the government estimates that average temperatures are already 2,8 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial average. A 2023 study from the University of Oxford found that the country will be the worst affected in the world when it comes to “uncomfortably hot days”.
“The impacts will intensify as emissions further increase. Switzerland faces increasing risk from more extreme weather with more hot days, heavier precipitation, drier summers, and winters with little snow,” the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology writes on its website.
“The direst consequences can be avoided, however, if prompt action is taken globally,” they added.