Thursday 31 December 2015

2015's Weather

This has been one of the warmest and driest December's on record (here in Switzerland). Lots of blue sky days and no new snow. So what was the rest of the year like?

January 2015
















Started pretty mild, with rain to over 3000m, then strong winds and not much snow below 1500m. But the upper slopes had some good snow, and the month ended with a 2 day storm.

February 2015













A delicate start, with all the fresh snow on top of some unstable layers - the resort blasted practically every slope to make it safe. Temperatures rose for a mild half-term week. Overall some good skiing

March 2015 











Some great snow and skiing especially if you hiked

April 2015














Some great snow ended the season. However, the overall impression of the winter; not many big dumps of snow - just small storms.

May 2015
The winter snow melted away quite quickly, opening up the walking routes early.


June 2015
Beautiful warm weather, and the meadows were soon a mass of flowers 

July 2015
July was a heat-wave and a fire ban was enforced - this lasted well into August.

August 2015
No fireworks for the 1st August celebrations (despite heavy rain on the day). The heat-wave ended, but fine weather continued with an occasional summer storm bringing much needed rain.

September 2015
The hills were very dry and the grasses golden. Wonderful autumnal walking weather.

October 2015
The larch colours where stunning this year - getting more golden by the day. There was the usual early dusting of snow down to valley which soon melted away.

November 2015
Very little precipitation and the fire ban was brought back in. The autumn colours continued to look stunning. The resort delayed opening for skiers by two weeks - the snow finally arrived around the 20th.

December 2015
Sunny, warm and settled with no new snow. A huge high sat over this part of Europe forcing all the bad weather further north, across the UK and into Scandinavia.