Heavy snow fall in parts of Switzerland

The last days it snowed heavy in big parts of the country. The amount of snow was so heavy that the record for snow in November is broken. The old record came from 1959 and was registered in Santa Maria in canton Gräubunden in Eastern Switzerland and amounted 69cm. This weak they measured 71cm in the same place as the old record was measured. With this heavy snowfall, a couple of ski areas opened their slopes.

Of course there is not only positive news about the heavy snowfall. Road and rail companies had major problems with the amount of snow. Where normally some rails are closed because of the winter season, last weekend there were several roads closed. Especially in the eastern of Swiss the ski station of Saas Fee was impossible to reach by car. The Rhaetian Railway (RhB) line was this weekend also covered in snow, the train could not run.

Around a dozen mountain resorts out of 200 are reported open across Switzerland this weekend. Davos and Arosa in the south-east of the country will open their lifts, as well as Andermatt and Engelberg in central Switzerland, and Adelboden-Elsigenalp-Metsch and Grindelwald-Wengen in the Bernese Oberland, according to Switzerland Tourism. “It’s an early start to the season, but not a record,” Andreas Keller, spokesperson for the Swiss Ski Lift Association, told Keystone-SDA.  
The organisation is optimistic about the upcoming winter season. It predicts a small increase in the number of overnight stays (+2.3%) and day passes (+1%), based on forecasts by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute and figures from last year. The 2018-2019 winter season saw the largest number of skiers on Swiss slopes since 2010-2011.  
However, Christmas and New Year remain the most critical holiday periods for the tourism and hotel sectors, representing 25% of annual turnover, Keller said.