Over Easter, the weather in Switzerland varies greatly from region to region: The friendliest and warmest weather will be from Good Friday to Easter Sunday with partly stormy foehn winds in the Alpine valleys in the east, while the worst and coolest with partly heavy precipitation will be in the south. The west is in between with changeable and occasionally wet weather. Widespread precipitation is to be expected on Easter Monday.
Colorful Easter weather
Over the Easter period, the weather varies greatly from region to region in Switzerland. Below is a summary of the weather from Good Friday to Easter Monday in our country. For the weather before Easter, see here.
Good Friday to Easter Sunday
The weather is fairly similar from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, so these three days will be summarized below. Basically, for all three days we are in the area of a partly stormy southerly flow between lower pressure in the west and higher pressure in the east, with which the air is dammed up on the southern slopes of the Alps and partly stormy foehn winds blow in the northern Alps (see Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Stormy southerly flow over the Alpine region at Easter (high-altitude wind map of the European weather model ECMWF on Saturday afternoon); Source: MeteoNews, UBIMET
Mostly cloudy and often wet in the south
The southerly high-altitude current will bring humid but fairly mild Mediterranean air, so that it will be mostly cloudy and repeatedly wet south of the Alps. Heavy rain will also fall in places, with the heaviest precipitation likely to occur on Easter Monday night. In total, large amounts of precipitation of up to over 150 liters per square meter will accumulate by Tuesday night (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Total precipitation from Good Friday to Easter Monday; Source: MeteoNews, UBIMET
Temperatures will reach between around 10 and 14 degrees, with a snow line mostly between around 1500 and 2000 meters. In the event of intense precipitation, it can also snow further down, especially in the valleys. On the higher mountains, up to 1.5 meters of fresh snow will accumulate. Together with some gale-force winds, there will also be large snow drifts, meaning that the avalanche risk is likely to be at least level 4 (high) in places. Ski tours should therefore be undertaken with extreme caution, and it is best to avoid them altogether.
Friendliest in the east, partly stormy foehn in the valleys
In the lee of the Alps, a strong to sometimes stormy foehn wind blows in the Alpine valleys from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. In central and eastern Switzerland, this will also provide sunny spells from time to time. However, it is difficult to estimate how much sunshine there will actually be. On the one hand, the stormy southerly winds at high altitudes could cause dense clouds to move over the Alps, while on the other hand there is likely to be a lot of Saharan dust, especially on Saturday, which will make visibility hazy and encourage the formation of medium and high clouds. However, it will definitely be friendly and there will certainly be some sunshine from time to time. Temperatures will be very mild to warm at around 17 to 20 degrees. Especially in the foehn valleys, temperatures of just over 20 degrees are possible on Friday and Saturday!
As mentioned, the foehn will blow through the valleys, sometimes with gale-force winds, only weakening during the night to Sunday, so there may be a few showers. The foehn or south wind will be strongest at high altitudes on the night of Holy Saturday and possibly on Sunday afternoon or in the night of Easter Monday, with foehn gusts of 100 to 130 km/h to be expected in the valleys, possibly even 140 km/h in places. At the same time, gale-force gusts of up to 150 km/h are to be expected on the mountains, and 170 km/h are also quite possible. It goes without saying that it is highly questionable whether all mountain railroads will be able to operate in such conditions...
In the west, weather somewhat between east and south
In the west, very changeable weather from Good Friday to Easter Sunday will bring at most occasional sunshine and occasional rain or showers, especially on Holy Saturday afternoon, during the night into Easter Sunday and on Easter Sunday afternoon. Temperatures are likely to be highest on Good Friday at around 20 degrees, with Sunday probably below 15 degrees.
Easter Monday widely wet in places
The exact weather development on Easter Monday is still uncertain, but it is likely to be occasionally wet not only in the south, but also in the north. The foehn wind is likely to be only weak to moderate, depending on the weather model it may even disappear completely. Temperatures in the east will be somewhat lower than before, with the temperature levels being modeled very differently in the various weather models.
Below is an overview of the weather and temperatures over the Easter period.
Fig. 3: Weather outlook in Switzerland over the Easter period; Source: MeteoNews
European weather: East the direction of the sun
Due to the weather situation with lower pressure to the west of us and higher pressure to the east of Switzerland, it quickly becomes clear where the weather is best around Switzerland over the Easter period, namely to the east. In eastern Austria and Hungary, for example, there will be plenty of sunshine and temperatures of 20 degrees and more. It also looks good in the Balkans, but also in central and southern Italy. If you are interested in the weather over the Easter period, we recommend our homepage www.meteonews.ch: Simply click on World Weather and select the relevant continent and then the relevant country or enter the location you are looking for directly in the top bar.
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