A year of weather extremes

In 2016 the weather reached record numbers in all categories. It was wetter and warmer than in previous years – consequences of climate change. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

Switzerland’s essential alpine character stands little chance of surviving predicted man-made global warming, even if the Paris agreement succeeds in putting the world on a low-carbon diet.

Top scientists predict no more glaciers, more frequent rockslides and browner landscapes. They envision hotter summers, fewer ski areas and more thunderstorms on the horizon. Those projections are based on the work of a Nobel Prize-winning group of climate scientists who keep track of global warming.

Switzerland’s annual mean air temperature has increased by 1.75 degrees Celcius over the past 150 years and “is projected to rise even faster until the end of the 21st century, depending on the emission scenario, accompanied by changes in other variables such as precipitation, snow cover, and run-off”, says a 2014 study led by scientists at the University of Bern.