If you woke up in Switzerland on Tuesday morning to find temperatures of -5 or -10 outside, then you are living somewhere relatively warm. According to Meteo Centrale, whose website lists the 20 coldest places every night, winter has truly arrived in Switzerland. Eleven of the places in Meteo Centrale’s top 20 coldest sit at altitudes above […]
Swiss temperatures set to plummet
The latest weather forecasts show Swiss temperatures falling abruptly ahead of this weekend. The Meteo Swiss website is showing a high of 17 degrees celsius for Geneva and Zurich today. By the weekend winter will have arrived with temperatures dropping sharply on Friday night. By Sunday the high in both Zurich and Geneva will be 5 degrees, […]
Switzerland’s 117 metre vertical forest
In 2017 a vertical forest will begin to rise from a building site located in Chavannes in west Lausanne. The tower will rise to a maximum of 117 metres and be covered with trees equivalent to around one hectare of forest. The tower’s designer is Milan-based architect Stefano Boeri. Already in Milan Two similar towers, […]
Much higher risk of childhood leukaemia near highways
A Swiss study released yesterday shows the health risks of living near a highway. The study by the Bern based Institute of Social and Preventative Medicine (ISPM) found that young children living less than 100m from a highway are at a substantially higher risk of leukaemia. Traffic emissions contain known carcinogens, such as benzene and […]
The Chinese city with the same life expectancy as Switzerland
For many, modern China evokes images of smog. A study published in the Lancet last week, shows that despite the negative health impacts of this pollution, life expectancy in China has shot up hugely since 1990. So much so that some provinces are close to global life expectancy leaders Switzerland and Japan. Nationally, China’s average […]
Have you ever seen 6,000 tons of rock fall off the side of a mountain?
Late last week around 6,000 tons of rock fell off the side of a mountain in the commune of Evolène in the Swiss canton of Valais. According to SRF, the canton’s geologist Raphael Mayoraz had been expecting the rock to fall for some time and had taken the required precautions to ensure no one was […]
Stunning time-lapse video of Swiss Alps
This video on Vimeo by One Lidless Eye takes you on a journey through some of the most dramatic landscapes in the Swiss Alps. It takes in northern Lugano, Ticino, and Zermatt in the canton of Valais, ending with the breath-taking Matterhorn. Bern hyperlapsed – visit Bern in 2 minutes (Le News 12.10.15) This year […]
Why Swiss rejected Daylight saving
At 3am this Sunday morning, Swiss time moves back one hour, giving Swiss residents an extra hour to sleep or party. Until fairly recently however, there was no Daylight Savings Time (DST) in Switzerland. In 1978 Swiss voters rejected plans to move to the current system of DST when 52.1% voted against it in a […]
How many solar panels does it take to power a whole town?
Earlier this month the town of Payerne switched on Switzerland’s largest solar installation on the La Bouverie industrial zone next to the township. It will produce an impressive 6,600 mega watts of electricity per year. A hot bed of solar innovation, Payerne is also home to the 100%-solar-powered round-the-world aircraft Solar Impulse, which recently flew […]
Concerns raised about Switzerland’s oldest nuclear reactor
The Beznau I reactor at the Swiss Bezenau nuclear power plant in Döttingen in the Canton of Aargau appears to be in worse shape than some had imagined. The reactor which sits on a man made island on the Aar river is currently on a rest period. It went into operation in 1969 and is […]
