Snow makes an appearance in Switzerland

Cows look for grass in the snow in the Vallee de Joux in the Jura on Sunday morning © KEYSTONE / JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

The end of summer time on the clocks was mirrored by the weather in Switzerland on Sunday as many places woke up to snow – with over 70 centimetres in the resort of Arosa.

The eastern Alps were affected in particular, where it snowed to quite low altitudes, the Swiss weather service MeteoSwissExternal link told Keystone-SDA.

Parts of the eastern canton of Graubünden saw 30-70-centimetres of snow at over 1,200 metres above sea level. This tweet from Swiss public television SRF’s weather service shows the difference in Davos, a Graubünden resort, between Saturday and Sunday.

Wer findet den Unterschied zwischen gestern und heute? #SchneeExternal link #WintervorfreudeExternal link ^tk pic.twitter.com/gVDLlnssA4External link

— SRF Meteo (@srfmeteo) October 27, 2018External link

Arosa recorded the highest snowfall at 72 centimetres.

Snow fell down to around 500 metres in some places, such as below.

Im #SarganserlandExternal link #SchneeExternal link bis ins Tal. In Chur/GR 10 cm #NeuschneeExternal link, in Elm/GL 22 cm, in Davos 42 cm, in Disentis/GR 55 cm und in Vals/GR sogar 68 cm. #WinterImHerbstExternal link ❄️☃️❄️ ^jz pic.twitter.com/8MkpnBbwSiExternal link

— SRF Meteo (@srfmeteo) October 28, 2018External link

Zurich airport also reported a few flakes in the night. However, snow need to fall at over 700 metres above sea level to really stay. Other places seeing snow were southern Valais (20-30 centimetres of powder snow) and the Jura.

Some local rail services in the Engadine region have been temporarily halted as were some in the Jura overnight.

Ticino deluge

But the snow is not likely to stay. Meteorologists said that the snow line was likely to rise to over 2,000 metres during the day.

Rain will continue to fall heavily south of the Alps, bringing with it some risk of flooding and mudslides.

Italian-speaking canton of Ticino has been issued with a level 4 weather warningExternal link (out of 5): around 200 litres of precipitation per metre squared is expected by Tuesday – normally the Ticino town of Locarno would expect 140 litres per m² during the whole of October.