Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Climate change tipped to alter Swiss avalanche patterns by 2100

Climate change leads to more wet snow avalanches by 2100
Climate change could lead to more wet snow avalanches by 2100 Keystone-SDA

Climate change is expected to result in fewer avalanches overall in Switzerland but to increase the danger of wet snow avalanches by 2100.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The only effective safety measure is to close ski resorts in danger zones, warn researchers.

In wet snow avalanches, part of the snowpack is moistened by melt or rain water. These are expected to increase above the tree line.

+ Read how Switzerland tries to defeat extreme weather events

But dry snow avalanches will decrease, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) announced on Wednesday. If the average winter temperature warms by around five degrees Celsius by 2100, the overall activity of avalanches will also decrease.

Avalanches are likely to reach valley locations less frequently in future due to rising temperatures, the associated higher snow line and less snow. However, there will still be extreme snowfall events in the future, the report continued. This could even lead to larger avalanches at higher altitudes. If these run off in a channelled manner, they could even reach the valley as they do today.

SLF investigated the consequences of climate change on avalanche activity at seven locations in Switzerland. These included the Weissfluhjoch above Davos and a station at 2,700 metres near Zermatt.

More

The results are transferable to the entire Alpine region. They can also be applied to mountain ranges with similar climatic conditions, such as the Columbia Mountains in Canada.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

films

More

Swiss films made their mark abroad in 2024

This content was published on Several Swiss films exceeded the 100,000 admissions mark worldwide in 2024 and received widespread praise at international film festivals.

Read more: Swiss films made their mark abroad in 2024

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR