Switzerland records warmest summer on record: 17.2°C
National average was 17.2°C, 0.4°C above the 2003 record; 30 stations reported new summer highs.
Switzerland experienced its warmest summer since national measurements began, registering a countrywide average temperature of 17.2 degrees Celsius, the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss reported.
The June–August mean exceeded the previous record from 2003 by 0.4 degrees and stood 3.4 degrees above the 1991–2020 reference average. Northwestern Switzerland was particularly affected, with averages up to four degrees higher than the long-term norm.
Widespread station records and an early spike
Thirty MeteoSwiss measuring stations set new summer temperature records; nearly half of those records were recorded in June. At the Basel-Binningen station on 30 July a high of 39.7 degrees Celsius was measured, equalling the highest temperature observed north of the Alps — a mark first recorded at Geneva-Cointrin on 7 July 2015.
The summer also brought a marked increase in the number of hot days and tropical nights. Several stations logged almost two extra weeks of hot days compared with their previous records, with Neuchâtel and Glarus each recording 18 additional such days.
Across Switzerland there were 50 tropical nights — nights when temperatures do not drop below 20 degrees Celsius — eight more than in the record year 2003. The scale and timing of the heat pushed many seasonal indicators well beyond previous extremes.
Scientists and authorities have noted that these figures add to an emerging pattern of stronger and earlier heat events in the region, with implications for public health, agriculture and infrastructure planning.
Photo: press material from the event
