Snowfall causes travel restrictions in much of Switzerland
Heavy snowfall in several regions of Switzerland caused restrictions in road and rail traffic on Monday morning. Numerous traffic accidents were reported during the morning rush hour. Only in a few places will the snow remain on the ground until Christmas Eve.
Lorries stuck in the snow caused road closures in several regions, including on the A1 motorway between Bern and Mühleberg. The situation was back to normal around midday.
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In canton Bern, around 70 road accidents were reported. Most of these were self-inflicted accidents, a spokesperson for the Bern cantonal police told the Keystone-SDA news agency. There was minor damage to property, but no one was seriously injured.
In canton Schwyz, police reported around a dozen accidents. Vehicles skidded off the road, got stuck in grassland or collided with crash barriers, parts of walls or stones. Ten accidents were reported in canton St. Gallen.
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The Bernmobil public transport company in the capital city had to cancel various bus routes, though trams were not affected. The Swiss Federal Railways also experienced delays and cancellations due to the heavy snowfall.
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The snow did not fall to the same extent everywhere in Switzerland. The snow mainly affected the western lowlands. In the high Alps, over a metre of snow fell in some places, Meteonews wrote on its website.
The current avalanche risk is very high in some places due to large snow drifts with accumulations of drifting snow. According to the avalanche bulletin from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, canton Valais and the rest of the Alps are affected.
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The snowfall was already easing on Monday afternoon, said the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss. By Tuesday morning, only isolated snow showers with a little fresh snow in places are expected. It will continue to snow along the Alps and in the Jura until Tuesday morning.
MeteoSwiss expects the snow below 500 to 600 metres to have largely melted again by Christmas Eve. Only on the Bernese Plateau and in parts of the central Plateau, where more than ten centimetres of snow fell on Monday, is a blanket of snow likely to remain until Tuesday. A white Christmas is likely at altitudes of 700 to 800 metres, but not in the southern canton of Ticino.
Translated from German with DeepL/gw
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