Stormy summer causes highest damage costs in years

Most damage was caused by thunderstorms and flooding, such as at Cressier, near Neuchâtel in western Switzerland, in June 2021. Keystone/Laurent Gillieron

Floods, landslides and rockfalls across Switzerland last summer resulted in damage costs of about CHF450 million ($466 million).

The Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape ResearchExternal link (WSL) said that for the first time since 2007 these costs had risen significantly above the 50-year average of CHF300 million.

The large number of storms in rapid succession across the country in June and July last year were responsible for the high costs, and not individual and localised incidents like in other years, the institute said on Tuesday.

“The wet and stormy summer of 2021 had a clear impact on the costs of damage caused by floods and landslides,” the statement said.

Heavy thunderstorms followed by flooding as well as constant rainfall, which caused many rivers and lakes to rise above high-water marks, were typical for 2021.

However, the institute’s database doesn’t include hail and storm damage.

Last October, the Swiss Insurance Association estimated that overall costs from natural disasters would cost about CHF2.2 billion.