If you think September marks the beginning of autumn – you are right. But the hot weather of recent months is in no hurry to leave Switzerland this year.
For meteorologists and climatologists, the autumn season actually begins three weeks before the official Autumnal Equinox on September 23rd – that, is on September 1st .
However, you wouldn’t know it if you look out the window or go outside almost anywhere on Switzerland: it’s still sunny and warm.
Even though mornings and evenings are cooler than during this summer’s heatwaves, when temperatures exceeded 30C and even reached the record-breaking 39C in Basel on June 27th, during the day, the temperatures are still very warm
They range from low to high 20s – and will remain so (even reaching the 30C-mark in some places throughout the week).
What can you expect, weather-wise, this week?
According to MeteoSwiss meteorological institute, for the next eight days, it will still be mostly summer.
Conceretely, though until Thursday September 3rd, the temps will be between 25 and 28C in most regions, from Friday and until Monday September 7th, it will be even warmer in certain areas.
For instance, on Friday, temperatures in Zurich Bern, Chur, Schaffhausen, Biasco, and Buchs wll reach 30C.
Basel will record 31C and Geneva 32C.
Similar temperatures will persist throughout the weekend, with Geneva reaching a high of 33C on Sunday.
What will happen for the rest of September?
No reliable forecasts are made beyond the eight-day mark.
Usually, September in Switzerland is an ‘Indian summer’ month – that is sunny and warm with average daytime temperatures between 19C and low 20s.
However, heatwaves are forecast to become more frequent, hotter and last longer in the future, due to climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
So the weather for coming weeks is, literally, up in the air.
