Staying out of the sun by the River Rhône in Geneva on August 5, 2018
Keystone
Last August 200 more people than usual died in Switzerland. The Federal Office for the Environment attributes the 3.4% increase in deaths to a ten-day heatwave.
“The dry and hot weather had negative effects on people’s health, forests, bodies of water, glaciers and agriculture,” it said in a statementExternal link on Thursday.
As in 2003 and 2015, numerous heat-related deaths were recorded in 2018, according to the analysis. While in 2003 from June to August about 1,000 more people died than usual (+6.9%), in 2015 there were an estimated 800 additional deaths (+5.4%).
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Swiss heatwave blamed for recreational deaths
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The hot weather was responsible for more people taking to the mountains, according to the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC). Record temperatures have also melted permafrost, making rockfalls more likely, the agency added. However, most mountain deaths were from falls, including two women in the Bernese Alps, another two in canton Graubünden and two in canton…
There were regional differences last year, the office noted. In western and southern cantons, the mortality rate remained the same during the heatwave. However, in eastern Switzerland and the greater Zurich area the number of deaths increased – “regions where there were no action plans for dealing with the heat”, the office pointed out.
This is a “plausible indication that heat-related mortality can be reduced with targeted measures and coordinated heat plans”. It said this included information campaigns and reminding people to drink more fluids and to stay indoors.
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What ‘dangerously hot’ means in Switzerland
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High temperatures have caused MeteoSwiss to issue the highest heatwave warnings since 2015 in some areas.
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Hotels in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino welcomed significantly more guests last December than in the same month of the previous year.
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Drought leaves mark on Swiss trees
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As hot and dry 2018 comes to an end, the foliage seems more brilliant than ever. But how well equipped are Switzerland’s trees to survive droughts?
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MeteoSwiss has issued a heat warning for the Italian-speaking region of Ticino, as the country continues to suffer the effects of the heat.
Swiss cereal harvests set to drop in 2018 after hot weather
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Bread wheat, barley, and rapeseed harvests look set to be considerably lower in 2018 due to the prolonged drought-like conditions.
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