Heavy thunderstorms swept across Switzerland on Wednesday and caused local flooding. Water entered houses in the St. Gallen area. In addition to the city of St. Gallen, several surrounding communities were affected by the heavy thunderstorm, especially in the Degersheim, Gossau, Wittenbach, Mörschwil and Rorschach areas.
Several communities in the Chur Rhine Valley were without electricity. In Uetendorf, Canton of Bern, the attic of a two-family house burned down after being struck by lightning. No one was injured.
There was heavy rain, gusts of wind and, according to Meteoschweiz, some hailstones as big as five-franc coins. By early evening, around 48,000 lightning strikes had been counted over Switzerland, as SRF Meteo reported.
Flooding in the Sitter
There was a lot of rain in the St. Gallen area. 50 millimeters were measured there in one hour, 22 of which fell within ten minutes. In Thurgau, the police warned of flooding in the Sitter and called on people to leave the danger area via the Alertswiss warning app.
But it also rained heavily in central Switzerland. In Oberiberg SZ, 40 millimetres were measured in one hour, with a total of around 60 millimetres. In places, there were heavy gusts of wind. In Einsiedeln SZ, the wind blew at 110 kilometres per hour.
90 emergency calls in St. Gallen
There were no reports of major damage at the moment. There were reports of trees being knocked over and streets and squares being temporarily flooded. In St. Gallen, the police received over 90 emergency calls that evening.
In Rorschach SG, Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider was unable to give her planned speech on August 1st. Due to an approaching thunderstorm, the festival tent was evacuated as a precaution. Dozens of people were asked to leave the premises, as a correspondent from the Keystone-SDA news agency reported on site.
