Lots of water and atmosphere on Lake Uri on Swiss National Day
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Heavy rain, flooding and even landslides interrupted the long-running hot and dry spell in some parts of Switzerland on Wednesday evening, but the drought continues.
A patch of north-eastern Switzerland got drenched with 50-90 millimetres (2-3.5 inches) of rainfall, while other parts got 20-50mm. Most of the nation got at least 5-20mm, but in the plains and half of the southern canton of Ticino, hardly a drop fell.
There were road-blocking landslides in cantons Bern, Graubünden and Uri. Near Lake Constance, an overflowing brook flooded train tracks. Part of the A13 motorway in St Gallen as well as the Flüela Pass between Davos and Susch were flooded as well. Temperatures sank by several degrees within a few minutes, and there were high winds around the country. Bern and Zurich got some hail, like this image shown by the Swiss public television weather service.
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Erste Bilanz der Gewitter: Schwere Sturmböen von 118 km/h in Altenrhein/SG, viel Regen in Aadorf/TG mit 52 mm und örtlich Hagel wie z.B. in Langwiesen/ZH (s. Bild). ^tk pic.twitter.com/BvwsI39MkvExternal link
However, the Swiss National Day rainfall was nowhere near enough to compensate for the lack of precipitation over the past weeks. There is still a risk of forest fires and farmers are concerned about crops such as corn and potatoes.
There’s still no rain in the forecast for the next days. July was a record-breaking month, with the mercury reaching nearly 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places on Tuesday.
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