Local temperatures of up to 35°C are expected to hit Switzerland this weekend, MeteoSwiss, the federal meteorology and climatology office, has warned.
Danger level 3 will apply across the country from Saturday until Wednesday below an altitude of 800 metres. This includes a considerable risk of circulatory problems and physical discomfort for people, MeteoSwiss said on Thursday.
Local temperatures of up to 33°C are expected as early as Friday.
According to private weather service MeteoNews, the heatwave is expected to peak on Saturday and towards the middle of next week. It said absolute record values were possible locally and especially at higher altitudes.
Drought and forest fires
MeteoNews expects the zero-degree line – the height at which the temperature goes into the minus – to rise to over 5,100 metres above sea level by Monday night. This could break the previous record of 5,184 metres set on July 25, 2022, in Payerne, canton Vaud.
With the extreme temperatures, glaciers would be even more affected by increased ice melt, it said.
The drought will also worsen, MeteoNews added, as August in particular was too dry, especially in western Switzerland and in parts of the Valais and Ticino. This is reflected, among other things, in the current high risk of forest fires in parts of the Valais and Geneva, it said.
On Thursday the national alert app Alertswiss of the Federal Office for Civil Protection issued a forest fire warning for parts of canton Geneva.