Switzerland has endured its hottest summer since records began 162 years ago in 1864. Between June and August 2026 the national average temperature reached 17.2°C, MeteoSwiss said on Thursday, 0.4°C above the previous record set in 2003.
The summer average was also 3.4°C above the 1991-2020 norm. The heat was especially intense in north-western Switzerland, where temperatures were 4°C above the long-term average—see map here.
On July 30th the temperature at Basel-Binningen reached 39.7°C, matching the record high north of the Alps, set at Geneva-Cointrin on July 7th 2015, according to MeteoSwiss’s summer climate bulletin.
Many places registered unprecedented temperatures. In all, 30 MeteoSwiss weather stations set new heat records during the summer, with almost half doing so in June.
One of the more striking readings came from Scuol, in the canton of Graubünden. On June 27th the temperature there reached 35.1°C at an altitude of 1,304 metres.
The number of very hot days and tropical nights also rose sharply. Several weather stations recorded almost two weeks more tropical days than under the previous record, including Neuchâtel and Glarus, both with 18 additional days.
Switzerland recorded 50 tropical nights over the summer, eight more than in 2003, MeteoSwiss said—a tropical night is a night during which the minimum temperature does not fall below 20°C.
More on this:
Meteo Swiss article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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