Switzerland breaks January heat record for north side of Alps
Switzerland recorded its highest-ever January temperatures north of the Alps on New Year's Day as thermometers hit 20.2C in the town of Delemont.
MeteoSwiss, Switzerland's national weather and climate service, said January heat records fell at several monitoring stations on the north side of the Alps mountain range, due to warm winds from the southwest.
"For the first time, 20C in January on the north side of the Alps!" it tweeted.
The 20.2C temperature recorded in Delemont on Sunday was due to mild southwesterly winds combining with the Foehn effect - a dry, warm, downslope wind on the downwind side of a mountain range - coming off the Jura mountains, said the agency.
The below tweet shows several daytime record temperatures in Switzerland on January 1st.
An mehreren Messstationen wurden heute neue Januarrekorde aufgestellt. Die gesamte Liste mit allen Stationen gibt es jetzt im Meteoticker 👉🏽 https://t.co/fd0vXwnz3B Aktuelle Messwerte 👉🏽 https://t.co/m6BX8FudNO (rp) pic.twitter.com/3iElGlBNj2
— MeteoNews Schweiz (@MeteoNewsAG) January 1, 2023
Temperatures in Delemont were hovering more than 16 degrees above the 1991-2020 average for the turn of the year, giving weather "worthy of June", it added.
Delemont is the capital of the northwestern Jura region, which borders France.
And on Monday, MeteoSwiss tweeted again to say that another new January record was broken. In Altdorf, in the canton of Uri, the temperature did not fall below 16.1C during the night.
"It was the mildest January night ever recorded here (previously 14.5C in Locarno-Monti)," said MeteoSwiss.
In Vevey on Lake Geneva, people queued for ice creams, while in Geneva itself, swimmers took part in the traditional New Year's Day dip in the lake.
They toasted the arrival of 2023 with fancy dress and champagne - and in unseasonally warm air well above the 8.5 C water temperature.
Switzerland's previous January temperature record for north of the Alps stood at 19.4 C, recorded on January 12th, 1993 at Lucerne.
The highest January temperature ever recorded anywhere in Switzerland was 24.0 C, registered on the south side of the Alps in the Ticino region, in 1944 at Lugano and in 2007 at Locarno-Monti.
READ ALSO: Parts of Switzerland set for record high temperatures over New Year's weekend
In the tiny principality of Liechtenstein neighbouring Switzerland - also covered by MeteoSwiss - temperatures reached 20.0 C in the capital Vaduz on Sunday.
That set a new January heat record at the station, beating the 19.0 C recorded on January 22, 1997.
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MeteoSwiss, Switzerland's national weather and climate service, said January heat records fell at several monitoring stations on the north side of the Alps mountain range, due to warm winds from the southwest.
"For the first time, 20C in January on the north side of the Alps!" it tweeted.
The 20.2C temperature recorded in Delemont on Sunday was due to mild southwesterly winds combining with the Foehn effect - a dry, warm, downslope wind on the downwind side of a mountain range - coming off the Jura mountains, said the agency.
The below tweet shows several daytime record temperatures in Switzerland on January 1st.
An mehreren Messstationen wurden heute neue Januarrekorde aufgestellt. Die gesamte Liste mit allen Stationen gibt es jetzt im Meteoticker 👉🏽 https://t.co/fd0vXwnz3B Aktuelle Messwerte 👉🏽 https://t.co/m6BX8FudNO (rp) pic.twitter.com/3iElGlBNj2
— MeteoNews Schweiz (@MeteoNewsAG) January 1, 2023
Temperatures in Delemont were hovering more than 16 degrees above the 1991-2020 average for the turn of the year, giving weather "worthy of June", it added.
Delemont is the capital of the northwestern Jura region, which borders France.
And on Monday, MeteoSwiss tweeted again to say that another new January record was broken. In Altdorf, in the canton of Uri, the temperature did not fall below 16.1C during the night.
"It was the mildest January night ever recorded here (previously 14.5C in Locarno-Monti)," said MeteoSwiss.
In Vevey on Lake Geneva, people queued for ice creams, while in Geneva itself, swimmers took part in the traditional New Year's Day dip in the lake.
They toasted the arrival of 2023 with fancy dress and champagne - and in unseasonally warm air well above the 8.5 C water temperature.
Switzerland's previous January temperature record for north of the Alps stood at 19.4 C, recorded on January 12th, 1993 at Lucerne.
The highest January temperature ever recorded anywhere in Switzerland was 24.0 C, registered on the south side of the Alps in the Ticino region, in 1944 at Lugano and in 2007 at Locarno-Monti.
READ ALSO: Parts of Switzerland set for record high temperatures over New Year's weekend
In the tiny principality of Liechtenstein neighbouring Switzerland - also covered by MeteoSwiss - temperatures reached 20.0 C in the capital Vaduz on Sunday.
That set a new January heat record at the station, beating the 19.0 C recorded on January 22, 1997.
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