Switzerland on Friday recorded its hottest ever June temperature, with the mercury hitting 38.8C in the northern city of Basel, breaking the previous record of 38C set there just a day earlier.
“The heat continues unabated,” the Swiss national weather service, MeteoSwiss, said on X, adding that “new temperature records were measured at many stations” across Switzerland Friday, “and not just for June”.
The provisional 38.8C record measured at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) at the Basel/Binningen station was “the hottest ever measured (there) since measurements began in 1897”, MeteoSuisse said.
That temperature beat the record set on Thursday of 38C measured at the same station, which shattered the previous hottest temperature measurement for June, registered in 1947.
And the weather service warned on its blog that Saturday could be even hotter, with temperatures of between 38 and 39 degrees Celsius “likely”.
In fact, it said temperatures up to 40C could “not be ruled out” in Basel.
If that happens, it would mark the first time ever the mercery hits that mark north of the Alps in Switzerland, MeteoSuisse said.
The hottest temperature ever measured in Switzerland was 41.5C, registered in Grono, in Graubunden canton south of the Alps, on August 11, 2003, it said.
