The June heatwave was a rare event even in today’s climate
Keystone-SDA
Extreme heatwaves, such as the past few days, remain a rarity in Switzerland despite climate change, according to the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss).
A heatwave of the same or greater intensity occurs less than once every 25 years at this time of year, MeteoSwiss said on Tuesday.
Despite the significant influence of global warming, a high-pressure weather system over Europe was also responsible for the heatwave.
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Climate adaptation
Why Europe is the fastest-warming continent
This content was published on
Jun 29, 2026
Western Europe’s second record-shattering heat wave in a month aligns with a grim trend: for the past three decades, Europe has been warming faster than any other continent.
Read more: Why Europe is the fastest-warming continent
Such weather conditions combining with an already warmer climate remains a rare occurrence.
At the same time, climate change has made the heatwave significantly more likely and more intense, according to analysis by World Weather Attribution.
A comparable heatwave would have been practically impossible 50 years ago because it was around 3.5 degrees Celcius cooler back then.
According to MeteoSwiss, the heatwave illustrated “just how extreme a heatwave can be even with around 1.4 degrees of global warming”, the report continues.
As climate change progresses, Swiss climate scenarios suggest that heatwaves such as the one at the end of June 2026 are becoming more likely and could be even more extreme in the future.
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Climate adaptation
Several Swiss records broken for heatwave duration
This content was published on
Jun 29, 2026
New heatwave records were set on Monday at several Swiss weather stations.
Read more: Several Swiss records broken for heatwave duration
Translated from German, sub-edited by mga
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