In what will come as little surprise to those indulging in the summer-like temperatures gripping the country at the moment, MeteoNews has confirmed that September 2023 in Switzerland was the hottest since records began. In a month when it was confirmed that glaciers in the mountains had lost 10 percent of their volume in just two years, the weather in Switzerland remained stubbornly warm.
According to MeteoNews, the weather in Switzerland was an average of four degrees celsius too warm in September when compared to temperature averages for the month between 1991 and 2020. The biggest temperature differences were found in the mountains - in Chasseral, Canton Bern, the mercury was five degrees higher than it should be for the time of year.
The hot weather was accompanied by excessive amounts of sunshine, with monthly records broken in Zurich, St. Gallen and Aarau. “In general, more than one and a half times as many hours of sunshine were recorded in the north compared to the climatic average”, MeteoNews wrote.
Along with being too hot and too sunny, the weather in the alpine nation rounded out the trifecta by being too dry as well. On average, it was 22,6 percent dryer in Switzerland than usual, with only parts of Ticino, Vaud, Aargau and Graubünden seeing damper conditions.
The exceedingly hot temperatures have led to some peculiar scenes up in the Alps, with Switzerland's peaks turning green instead of being given their traditional helping of snow. This adds to the findings released by the Swiss Academy of Sciences, which found that Swiss glaciers have lost 10 percent of their volume in just two years, thanks to the consistently hot weather caused by climate change.
In the near future, summer-like conditions will continue in Switzerland into October. Temperatures of 25 degrees are expected across the alpine nation on October 2 and 3, before the mercury drops to between 20 and 22 degrees for the rest of the week. Most areas will remain dry and sunny.
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