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- In some parts of Switzerland it rains very heavily. In Ticino, 230 millimeters of rain fell in 36 hours.
- The federal government has declared the highest possible level of danger for Ticino, southern Grisons and the Engadine.
- Particularly around bodies of water and in road traffic, caution is advised because heavy rains can cause streams and rivers to grow rapidly.
Since Friday morning it has been raining in Ticino and parts of the canton of Graubünden like buckets. The Magadino plain was particularly affected on Saturday afternoon. There, around noon, 47 millimeters of rain fell. The total of 36 hours of precipitation amounted to 228 millimeters. This corresponds to about 125 percent of the usual monthly precipitation in the Magadino plain in August. In the afternoon there was a longer dry phase in the Magadino plain
The rain on Saturday morning was extreme in Biasca as well. In two hours it dropped 77 millimeters. The total amount there since Friday morning is around 175 millimeters. The amounts of rainfall in the Locarno area are of the same order of magnitude.
Graubünden was also affected
In Graubünden it has rained a lot in some parts since Friday. In Bergell it was a good 130 millimeters until Saturday afternoon. On Friday, southern Grisons and the Engadine were particularly affected, on Saturday the rain moved more towards the Surselva and towards Glarus Süd and the southern part of the canton of St. Gallen. There, too, the rainfall situation will worsen in the next few hours.
The first floods and landslides occurred in Ticino on Friday, for example near Gandria on Lake Lugano, north of Bellinzona and near Madonna di Ponte. There was also a rockfall on Saturday morning on the road between Ilanz and Trun in Surselva.
There, however, the amount of rain was much more modest, around 50 millimeters in 24 hours. On Saturday afternoon the Malojapassstrasse had to be closed after landslides. On Saturday afternoon, a train collided with a landslide on Lake Maggiore. People were not harmed.
There are longer dry phases on Saturday night, especially in the west and northwest. Otherwise, heavy rains should be expected over and over again. In Ticino, another 120 millimeters of rain will fall in some places on Sunday night, in Graubünden, Glarnerland and the southern canton of St. Gallen, another 50 to 100 millimeters of rain are expected for Sunday night.
Since the snow line on both sides of the Alps is typically between 2,500 and 3,000 meters at noon on Sunday, virtually all precipitation flows for a long time and little remains in the form of snow. Consequently, there is a risk of flooding and debris flows, especially in Ticino and much of Graubünden.
