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Higher temperatures, prolonged drought, more heavy rain: So far, the effects of global warming have been predicted across Switzerland in particular. An online tool is now showing the changes at the cantonal level as well.
Climate change has different effects regionally. In the Alpine cantons, global warming could be up to four degrees, and the Aletsch Glacier could lose up to 80% of its mass.
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The federal government’s “Webatlas CH2018” shows the effects climate change can have on Switzerland.
New data show the effects for the individual cantons and major regions.
This gives the cantonal authorities a tool to react to the expected changes.
We actually cannot understand climate change: it is true that it has been scientifically proven that the climate has warmed excessively since industrialization and that it will lead to a catastrophe if we do nothing about it. But the changes are abstract: An average air temperature 1.5 degrees higher or the sea level raised by a few centimeters have little emotional impact on us. And most of them are looking forward to the heaped summer days anyway.
We therefore recognize the dangers of change above all when it gets on us. For example, if we are directly affected by a flood disaster like last year in Germany. Even if we knew what effect the climate change could have on our immediate surroundings: on our village, the neighborhood, the garden in which our vegetables dry up or our home, which is possibly undermined by water.
Different cantonal effects
So far, however, there have only been forecasts for the whole of Switzerland. The data was compiled by the National Center for Climate Services (NCCS, see box) and is shown in the so-called “Webatlas CH2018”. The web atlas shows in different CO2 emission scenarios how the climate is likely to develop in Switzerland up to 2050 and beyond.
Several maps and graphics show the expected changes in temperatures, hot days and precipitation up to the year 2060 – always in comparison to the observed data from 1981 to 2010. These findings are intended, among other things, to help the federal government develop strategies for dealing with the To develop climate change.
Under the direction of Meteo Switzerland, new, more local data has now been recorded and also integrated into the web atlas: the online tool now also shows possible climate scenarios at cantonal level. Although the same applies to all cantons, which will also be felt throughout Switzerland – hotter days, longer drought, less snow – the effects nevertheless differ.
Hot days up to 40 degrees
For example, hot days of up to 40 degrees are predicted for the year 2060 in Valais. In Obwalden, on the other hand, the mercury columns reached up to 34.4 degrees Celsius on extreme days. While the longest dry spells there last up to eight and a half days longer than in the past, in Graubünden it is “only” three days more. This means that the cantons will have to react differently to the changes.
The web atlas shows the changes on a larger scale based on the five major regions of Jura, Central Plateau, Pre-Alps, Alps and the southern side of the Alps. In the Alps, for example, Switzerland’s strongest warming of two to even four degrees can be expected by 2060.
In short: With the refinement of the data in the CH2018 web atlas, the possible effects of climate change are now moving closer to our own living environment. You become more tangible.
The National Center for Climate Services is a federal network that deals with climate issues and develops so-called climate services such as the CH2018 web atlas. The climate services are intended to serve as a basis for decision-making in business, politics and the authorities. The NCCS was founded in 2015 and is made up of various federal organizations and administrative units, including the Federal Office for the Environment, the ETH and the WSL.
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