keystone
According to the weather services, a white Christmas is unlikely in the lowlands this year. This matches the saved readings. Since 1931, 60 percent of Christmases in the lowlands have been green.
The prospects for the lowlands are only moderately promising. At the end of the week it was said on the website of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (Meteoswiss) that there are signs of a more westerly-dominated current that is carrying mild Atlantic air to the continent. According to forecasts, there are “signals of temperatures that are too mild in the days before Christmas” in large parts of Europe.
The weather service Meteonews expects the same, as it announced on Friday. What is certain is that after a milder and often sunny phase, especially in the mountains, it will be cooler starting next Friday with a north-west to west location, especially at altitude. However, exactly what the weather will look like before and at Christmas is “absolutely unclear”.
Little hope
Some weather models would expect a high-altitude trough to pass over us shortly before Christmas, followed by a northerly position over Christmas, which could cause the snow line to drop to low altitudes. But it is more likely that it will not be so cool that there will be enough snow at low altitudes.
The conclusion: Whether it will snow at all and whether the snow will stay is still completely open. But there remains a small hope for a white Christmas at low altitudes because of the long forecast horizon, according to Meteonews.
The trend towards a more green Christmas in the Swiss plains is reflected in the climatological evaluations, the weather services wrote in their evaluations. In the central and eastern Mittelland, 60 percent of Christmases since 1931 have been green, as Meteoschweiz writes. In western Switzerland or in the lowlands on the southern side of the Alps, there were 75 and 80 percent green Christmases, respectively.
