Never before has it been as warm north of the Swiss Alps as on New Year’s Eve. In the city of Delémont, 20.2 degrees were measured. That is 16 degrees above the average of the last thirty years.
The heat record has also been broken at several other measuring stations in the area, says the Swiss meteorological agency MeteoSwiss.
The old January record was 19.4 degrees and was measured on January 12, 1993 in the city of Lucerne. It was so hot in Delémont that it felt like “June,” according to the Swiss Meteorological Agency.
According to MeteoSwiss, the unusually warm weather is caused by a mild southwesterly wind combined with a so-called hair dryer. This is a warm, dry wind on the north side of the Alps that is created because the southerly wind warms up under certain circumstances when it blows over the mountains.
