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Fourth hottest August recorded in Switzerland

People on a beach
Intense heat was sandwiched between two wet spells at either end of August. Keystone / Laurent Darbellay

According to the private weather service Meteonews, the temperature in August was two degrees Celsius warmer than the long-term average from 1991 to 2020.

That would make August this year one of the top five warmest ever measured.

It will probably rank fourth behind 2003, 1992 and 2022, Meteonews announced on Tuesday.

With the exception of August 2, the first ten days were sometimes cooler than normal. From August 10th to 25th, however, it was consistently hot. The heatwave that occurred during this period was very long. New all-time records were recorded on some days.

This was followed by a significant drop in temperature on Sunday and Monday, to below 15 degrees Celsius in some regions. 

Although it was mostly dry for a long time, especially in the lowlands, August was also “too wet” across most of the country. This is due to the heavy precipitation of the past few days and the wet phase at the beginning of August. Across Switzerland there was around 30% more rainfall than average.

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