First snowflakes reach Swiss lowlands

For the first time this autumn, there were a few snowflakes below 500 metres in the lowlands to the north of the Swiss Alps on Thursday.

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Snow started to fall at 500 to 700 metres in places.

The Federal Office of Meteorology (MeteoSwiss) said on Thursday that there was one to three and in some places a maximum of four centimetres of snow. In the Alps, around five to ten and locally 20 centimetres of snow had fallen. However, only small amounts of snow are expected in the lowlands in the coming days.

The snowfall is not unusual at this time of year. According to the weather service MeteoSwiss, the average date for the first measurable snowfall (at least one centimetre) since 2001 is between St Gallen on November 11 and December 25 in Lugano.

Last year, record amounts of snow fell locally from November 21 to 22. The first snowfall down to the lowlands caused disruption to traffic.

Buses stopped running in Zurich, Bern and Basel, while trams in Bern were temporarily left in the depot. At the Gotthard, cars were temporarily unable to travel southwards. Flights and rail connections were also affected.

It will be very frosty in the coming days, the weather services added. In the north, the thermometer will barely climb above 0 degrees from Friday to Sunday, and in some places temperatures are expected to remain slightly below freezing, resulting in so-called ice days.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga