The month just ending was the warmest ever October in Switzerland, weather forecasters said on Friday. The feeling of an Indian summer was confirmed by the weather watchers from MeteoSwiss, who said the month had surpassed everything recorded since 1864. The situation was driven largely by warm winds arriving from the south and southwest, pushing the average national October temperature 3.7°C above the norm for the period 1991-2020. On Friday, a temperature of 27.4°C was reported in canton Jura in the west of the country; normally it’s only about 12°C at this time of year, meteorologists said. It’s too soon to speak about the impact of this on trees and vegetation, according to the Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL). But weather experts still noted that many autumn leaves are moving more slowly through their colour change to reach the most intense red or orange phase. It’s just the latest sign of an extreme weather period: as in other countries...
