Locarno is Switzerland’s hotspot for tropical nights.
Keystone-SDA
Nowhere else in Switzerland has there been such a high number of tropical nights since records began: so far this summer, the temperature in Locarno-Monti has not fallen below 20°C on 47 nights. In Lugano, Ticino’s largest city, the figure stands at 44 nights.
During the heatwave of summer 2003, Locarno recorded just 42 tropical nights, Luca Panziera of MeteoSwiss explained on Monday in response to an enquiry from the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA. In Lugano, 33 tropical nights were recorded at that time.
Until the 1980s, there had been fewer than ten tropical nights per year, Panziera added. The current figures mark a new record for night-time temperatures on the southern side of the Alps. Lugano and Locarno are the only monitoring stations to have recorded such a high number of tropical nights.
Lugano recorded nights with temperatures above 25°C both in 2019 and this summer. On June 27 this year, the night-time temperature in Ticino’s largest city was exactly 25.3°C, Panziera explained. There is as yet no name for such nights, the meteorologist said.
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No end to the summer in sight
Since Monday morning, the southern side of the Alps has been the only region in Switzerland under a level four heat warning, which remains in place until Friday evening. Panziera noted that the weather situation in Ticino is unlikely to change much until August 17. Apart from a few possible brief thunderstorms, no rain is forecast for this week.
It is unclear whether anything will actually change next week, he said. “From next week onwards, the uncertainty surrounding the forecasts increases,” Panziera said, adding that it was possible that there may be the occasional rain shower after August 17. It is also conceivable that the most intense heatwave in southern Switzerland will come to an end and that “only” a level two or three heat warning will remain in place, he said.
However, there is still no sign of sustained rainfall on the southern side of the Alps. Panziera believes it is most likely that temperatures in Ticino will be three, four or five degrees lower from next week onwards. However, there are no signs yet that summer is coming to an end, he concluded.
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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.
