Director of meteorology at Meteonews, Frédéric Glassey follows the evolution The situation in real time. He explains this “remarkable snowy episode” by an impressive phenomenon of isothermal: “Contrary to what the models predicted, the wind fell, and very intense precipitation suddenly dropped the temperatures.” In Sion, they went from 7 to 0 degrees in about an hour. The phenomenon quickly won the entire canton, with the exception of Chablais. For the meteorologist, “snowfall has consequences but if all these precipitation had fallen in the form of rain, we could have faced more serious disasters”.
Floods avoided thanks to the snow
The rail links are also disturbed. The CFF of Haut-Valais line is impracticable between the vintage and the loose. The one that connects Täsch to Zermatt is interrupted. Replacement buses have been organized. The bad weather caused power cuts in several municipalities, including that of Zermatt, but also those of Saint-Nicolas, Anniviers or Hérémence. For this reason, mobile telephony networks are disturbed in these regions. Overloaded with calls, the Cantonal Police Center for Commitment wishes to recall that its numbers are reserved for emergencies.
Locked up with humidity and baptized “Hans” by Italian weather services, depression arrives from the south and collides at the Alps dam. The Simplon region, the SaaS valley and that of Conches, as well as the Mattertal and the Binntal are particularly concerned. In Zwischbergen, more than 250 millimeters of accumulated precipitation has been recorded since the start of bad weather. The situation seems even more critical in northern Italy, and especially in the Domodossola region. The Bernese Oberland is also affected and Kandersteg is also deprived of electricity. Precipitation should decrease and stop in the afternoon.
This Thursday, the cantonal driving body lifted the pre -alert issued the day before for possible Rhône floods. So far, overflows, torrential lavas and landslides were feared. From now on, everything indicates that the snow takes these risks away in the immediate future, because precipitation will not immediately join the rivers. On the other hand, they will reappear when the temperatures go up and the danger of avalanches will be particularly marked in the coming days. “Large spontaneous avalanches are to be expected” above 2,200 meters, according to the Institute for the study of snow and avalanches (SLF).
