After several days of rainfall and changeable temperatures, there’s good news for fans of autumn warmth and those currently on school holidays. The weather in Switzerland is expected to be balmy during the second half of this week, with perfect hiking conditions forecast for the mountains.
It’s safe to say that conditions across Swiss cities and cantons have been anything but predictable in the past few weeks. From the (brief) return of summer temperatures to the first snowfall on ski resorts, it feels as though the weather really can’t make its mind up.
Luckily for those who crave an outdoor adventure, this week Switzerland is forecast to be sandwiched between an area of high pressure to the east and an area of low pressure to the west. As a result, a wave of warm air will be passing across the alpine nation in the coming days.
According to MeteoNews, things will really start to warm up from October 16, with temperatures in Swiss cities varying between 17 and 20 degrees celsius. These warm conditions will persist until Friday night, accompanied by fog in the morning and clear skies in the afternoon to the north of the Alps, and cloud and rainfall to the south.
However, the really warm temperatures will be in the mountains: thanks to the foehn - a strong warm wind which flows through the Alps - the mercury in Switzerland's alpine valleys will skyrocket to 25 degrees on October 15 and 16. With the school holidays in full swing in a large number of cantons and international schools, Wednesday and Thursday are set to be the perfect days for a family autumn hike in the mountains.
On the north side of the Alps, hikers will be able to don their t-shirts in the Lower Valais, Upper Valais near Visp, Glarnerland, the valleys of the Rhine and Reuss and the Haslital. To the south, the Engadine, Poschiavo, Maggiatal, Leventia, Misox and Vedeggio Valley are your best bets.
However, if your working week still ends on Friday evening, conditions will prove to be a mixed bag. Friday and Saturday will see rain showers and temperatures of between 10 and 18 degrees across the country. Luckily, by Sunday the rain is expected to give way to scattered clouds and sunshine, with temperatures peaking at 19 degrees. By next week, warm sunshine will return to the alpine nation once again.
The promise of warm weather comes shortly after Switzerland saw one of the darkest and wettest September on record, having recorded 61 percent more rainfall than the 10-year average.
Temperature records were also broken on both ends of the scale, with Canton Glarus reporting its highest average September temperature (30,6 degrees, September 7) and its lowest (7,8 degrees, September 13) - nationwide, the latter was the coldest September day since records began. Thanks to climate change, extreme changes in weather are set to become all the more common.