Even if you have only spent a few days here in Switzerland, you know its weather can be as volatile as the emotional rollercoaster of being a teenager. One minute you are lakeside enjoying a beautiful sunset the colour of candy floss. But just 12 hours later? The clouds roll and hang low for days on end. It is not unheard of for a 20 degrees Celsius drop in a matter of hours as the next cold front moves in. But with weather that unpredictable, where do you get good information?
Lucky for you, while predicting the weather in a country where elevations vary from 400m – to 4000m can be a challenge, there are plenty of ways to get information to help you decide if it is safe to hike, dry to explore, snowy enough to ski. From the Swiss Meteorological Institute to TV meteorologists to traditional weather predictors, there are as many opinions on the weather as chocolate brands.
But before we get into which swiss meteorological resources you should depend upon, here are some facts and terms to help you navigate Swiss weather (from a Swiss-german perspective)
Basic Swiss Weather Facts
- For a small country, the weather can be varied depending on location, so most meteorologists divide Switzerland into three weather regions – Western Switzerland, Southern Switzerland and Northern Switzerland.
- But the weather doesn’t just change based on location. It also changes due to altitude. So what is true for the village at 400 m can be a whole complete sunny story at 1000 meters above sea level.
- Seasons are just suggestions in Switzerland. In low lying cities, it is more likely to snow at Easter than at Christmas. The warm föhn wind can melt the snow away in a pretty second, and summer weather still requires the backup of a fleece.
- Weather in the mountains is unpredictable, so always be prepared for a downpour or even a storm.
Swiss German Weather Terms
- Föhn: A warm southerly wind blamed for everything from strong wind storms, kid’s bad moods to adults headaches.
- Bise: The bitter cold northerly winds that reduce that wind chill factor.
- Nordföhn: This is the strong wind in the southern canton of Ticino that causes grey clouds and rain for those north of the alps but high winds in the south.
- Flachland: When the meteorologists predict snow as low as the “Flachland”, you know even the white stuff will make it down to the lowest of altitudes.
- Saharastaub: If that southerly wind is strong enough, you may discover your car covered in a fine dusting of Sahara sand and tinging the sunsets orange.
- Blütestaub: In the springtime, meteorologists also give information on the pollen levels in the air and which grasses and trees are the current main culprits.
Now you have some basic Swiss weather knowledge, let’s move on to the different weather sources:
Best Swiss Weather Apps and Websites
1. Not the Native Apple Weather App
Many people refer to the native Apple weather app for all their up to date weather information, but from my experience, the app often gets it wrong. For example, the app will get your hopes up for snow when there is none, predict a day-long downpour when it only rains for the afternoon, so my first recommendation is to ditch it altogether. Sure it will give you a basic guide. Still, with information fed from outside of Switzerland (the source is the American Weather Channel) combined with the irritability of Swiss weather, you are better off considering one of the local sources below.
2. Swiss Meteo and website
This is the Swiss Meteorological Institute app and is my first port of call for all things Swiss weather. While often on the more optimistic side of forecasting, I find their radar feature excellent and the newly introduced “possibility” of rain (the thin grey lines) a helpful addition. I love that you can get location-specific weather recommendations, scroll through a five-day weather prediction seeing specifically when it may rain and when it should be clear. The app is almost all in English (this depends on your phone setting), except for the detailed forecasts that default back to German.
3. SRF Meteo App and website
The weather app from the local Swiss-german TV channel, SRF Meteo, is my second port of call if the Swiss Meteo app doesn’t show me want I want to see (I’m ever the weather optimist). I also refer to it if their nightly weather bulletin (7:50 pm SRF 1) is significantly different to that of Swiss Meteo. In other words, I keep a tab on both. While the app is in German, it is intuitive to use – just search your location in the search bar up top and star it as your favourite. The interface is much more picture-based, with hour by hour predictions up to 5 days in advance. I also follow SRF Meteo on Instagram, where they share some great weather insights, especially if the weather direction is difficult to predict.
4. MeteoBlue App
Initially developed by students at a University in Basel, Meteoblue comes highly recommended in many hiking forums. It has an easy to read format in English, showing precipitation, sun hours and wind speed. However, what I don’t like about this app is the ads. Of course, for a free app, ads are expected, but in this app, they come up at the most awkward times. The radar, however, is very easy to read, and they have a great option to find out where the sunniest place in Switzerland is within a particular radius.
5. Meteo Centrale Website
I no longer use the Meteo Centrale website, but I know friends who used to call Switzerland home preferred this website (not an app), finding it more accurate. I found the website a little clunky to use, but I still will refer to it if my plans depend on good weather and I want another source just to be safe.
6. Wetterschmöcker
But wait a minute, it is not just the scientists in Switzerland that predict the weather. The “Wetterschmöcker” (literally translated as the weather smellers) are a group of self-proclaimed weather prophets from the central Switzerland village of Muotathal, who twice a year give their Swiss weather predictions, with a good dose of humour. Their predictions are so popular they are even broadcast on local radio each year.
How do you get your weather information in Switzerland? From one of these sources? Or have we missed one? Let us know in the comments below.
