Weather Switzerland: Snow on the Gotthard: Police stop traffic

There will also be frequent and heavy snowfalls along the Alps on Monday, especially in the afternoon. Below 500 meters the snow sometimes turns into sleet or rain. Winter road conditions must be expected. The TCS reported disruptions on the A1 due to slippery snow. In Bern there were numerous cancellations on the bus network due to the fresh snow.

The northern location of Deep “Enol” with its center over Denmark will direct moist polar air towards Switzerland until Christmas Eve: On the northern slopes of the Alps and in northern Bünden, above around 800 meters, 20 to 40 cm, in some areas up to 50 cm, of fresh snow is expected on Monday, as Meteo Switzerland reports. Below 800 meters, a few centimeters of snow can be expected.

On Christmas Eve the weather changes again: On the central and eastern northern slopes of the Alps it is still snowing until around midday, in the lowlands there is only isolated snowfall. Coming from the west it becomes increasingly sunny during the day. In the lowlands the temperatures are around freezing point in the morning, around 3 degrees in the afternoon, and up to 6 degrees are possible in northwestern Switzerland.

A strong northerly foehn will blow on the southern side of the Alps on Monday. This can influence the tracking behavior of wind-susceptible vehicles, wie Meteonews emphasized. The weather service recommends adapting your driving style to the circumstances.

Snowfall leads to traffic restrictions throughout Switzerland

The snowfall led to restrictions on road and rail traffic across Switzerland on Monday morning. Trucks standing sideways caused roadblocks in several places: including on the A1 between Bern Brünnen and Mühleberg or at an exit on the A3 between the Luterbach junction and Solothurn Ost. The situation returned to normal around midday.

There were around 70 traffic accidents in the canton of Bern on Monday. Most of them were accidents, said a spokeswoman for the Bern cantonal police when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. There was minor property damage, but no one was seriously injured.

The Federal Roads Office (Astra) recommended bypassing the region via the A12 to Lausanne. According to the TCS, a truck standing sideways was also blocking an exit on the A5 between the Luterbach junction and Solothurn Ost.

The city of Bern is also affected: Due to the snowfall, there were interruptions and delays on the Bernmobil public transport network on Monday morning. Various bus routes have been temporarily suspended. The situation began to calm down around 9 a.m. Only line 162 to Münsingen was still interrupted due to slippery snow. There were still delays on three bus routes. The trams all ran normally.

Snow and ice on the streets are sometimes a challenge for buses and trams in Bern, especially in steeper places. In addition, the buses are sometimes hindered by other road users who get stuck in the snow. Due to a snow-covered road, the cantonal road between Welschenrohr and Flumenthal in the canton of Solothurn was also closed, it said.

The police reported around a dozen accidents in the canton of Schwyz. The vehicles slipped off the road, got stuck in the meadow or collided with guard rails, parts of a wall, stones or a candelabra. Ten accidents were reported in the canton of St. Gallen.

There were also restrictions in rail transport. On Monday morning, rail traffic at St-Imier BE station was restricted due to heavy snowfall, as the SBB announced on its website. Delays and cancellations are to be expected.

Increased danger of avalanches

The federal government warns of significant dangers in large parts of the Alps due to snow on roads between Sunday and Tuesday and of avalanche danger of level 3 (significant) and level 4 (major) for the Valais, the northern Alpine ridge and the Gotthard area.

On Sunday, Meteo Switzerland reported fresh snow of 30 to 50 centimeters and in some cases even more for the western Bernese Oberland, the western Uri Oberland and the Glarus hinterland.

The Vallascia measuring station of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) showed 39 centimeters of new snow in the last 24 hours on Sunday afternoon. There – at an altitude of around 2,300 meters – the snow depth was already 84 centimeters. This measuring station is located above Airolo TI in the Gotthard area.

By Christmas Eve, meteorologists expect up to 125 centimeters of snow in central areas of the Alps within 75 hours.

Mostly green Christmas

The snow did not fall equally heavily everywhere in Switzerland. The western lowlands were particularly affected by the snow. Meteonews wrote on its website that over a meter of snow had fallen in some parts of the high Alps.

The snowfall was already subsiding on Monday afternoon, as the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology Meteo Switzerland announced upon request. Only a few snow showers with little fresh snow in some places are expected until Tuesday morning. It will continue to snow along the Alps and in the Jura until Tuesday morning.

Meteo Switzerland assumes that below 500 to 600 meters most of the snow will have melted again by Christmas Eve. Only in the Bernese Mittelland and parts of the central Mittelland, where over ten centimeters of snow fell on Monday, is a blanket of snow likely to last until Tuesday. At altitudes of 700 to 800 meters, except in Ticino, a white Christmas is likely.

Storm over the Mittelland

A strong westerly wind swept across the Mittelland on Sunday morning. The storm was strongest in Grenchen in the canton of Solothurn at 95 kilometers per hour (km/h). But 60 to 90 km/h were also measured in the rest of the Mittelland. The storm in Altdorf in the Uri Reuss Valley was even stronger than in the lowlands at 99 km/h.

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