Average Annual Precipitation for Switzerland
The tables below give yearly averages for rainfall plus snowfall at cities, resorts and mountains in Switzerland. Each place has a total for how many days of wet weather it usually gets a year and for the normal amount of precipitation.
The calculation of days only includes the days when precipitation totalled at least one millimetre (0.04 inches). The annual amount of precipitation is an average of weather data collected during 1961 to 1990.
You can jump to a separate table for each part of the country: Eastern, Western, Central and Northern Switzerland.
Western Switzerland
This section covers the mainly French speaking portion of Switzerland. It includes the area around Lake Geneva and the cantons of Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Valais and Vaud.
Some of the weather stations are at high elevations in the Valais (or Pennine) Alps of southwestern Switzerland. Great St. Bernard Pass (Col du Grand St-Bernard) is the highest point on this list at 2472 metres (8110 feet). Also above 1400 metres (or 4600 feet) are the mountain resort towns of Zermatt and Montana.
| Days | Place | Inches | Millimetres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 130 | Biel/Bienne | 47.4 | 1203 |
| 130 | Fribourg | 44.0 | 1118 |
| 113 | Geneva (Genève) | 37.6 | 954 |
| 171 | Great St. Bernard Pass | 92.0 | 2336 |
| 151 | La Chaux-de-Fonds | 55.4 | 1406 |
| 123 | Lausanne | 45.3 | 1150 |
| 111 | Montana | 38.7 | 982 |
| 136 | Montreux | 54.3 | 1379 |
| 122 | Neuchâtel (Neuenburg) | 36.7 | 932 |
| 114 | Nyon | 37.6 | 954 |
| 116 | Payerne | 33.3 | 845 |
| 83 | Sion (Sitten) | 23.5 | 598 |
| 92 | Zermatt | 24.1 | 611 |
Central & Northern Switzerland
Most places on this list are below 1000 metres (3280 feet) elevation where the weather is relatively mild. Somewhat snowier are the ski resort villages of Adelboden in the Bernese Oberland and Engelberg in Obwalden canton.
The site here with the most extreme precipitation is the mountain peak Säntis, near Schwägalp. At 2502 metres (8209 feet) elevation it's the highest point in the Appenzell Alps.
| Days | Place | Inches | Millimetres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 148 | Adelboden | 53.0 | 1346 |
| 121 | Basel | 30.6 | 778 |
| 126 | Bern (Bären) | 40.5 | 1028 |
| 158 | Engelberg | 59.4 | 1510 |
| 136 | Interlaken | 46.2 | 1174 |
| 138 | Lucerne (Luzern) | 46.1 | 1171 |
| 172 | Säntis | 106.3 | 2701 |
| 125 | Schaffhausen | 34.8 | 883 |
| 144 | St. Gallen | 49.1 | 1248 |
| 130 | Thun | 40.8 | 1037 |
| 139 | Winterthur | 42.0 | 1068 |
| 133 | Zofingen | 42.3 | 1075 |
| 127 | Zürich | 40.6 | 1031 |
Eastern Switzerland
This list includes two low-elevation cities, Locarno and Lugano, in the canton of Ticino of south-east Switzerland.
Several places here in the canton of Graubünden are mountain resort towns, including Davos, Scuol and Samedan, which sit above 1500 metres (4921 feet) elevation.
There are also two mountains of the Central Eastern Alps. On Weissfluhjoch, a peak in the Plessur Range above Davos, weather is reported from just below the summit, at 2690 metres (8825 feet) elevation. On Piz Corvatsch, near Silvaplana in the Bernina Range, the weather is measured at 3305 metres (10,843 feet).
| Days | Place | Inches | Millimetres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 130 | Chur | 31.4 | 798 |
| 127 | Davos | 39.3 | 999 |
| 122 | Disentis / Sedrun | 40.8 | 1036 |
| 148 | Glarus | 55.7 | 1416 |
| 101 | Locarno | 65.7 | 1668 |
| 103 | Lugano | 60.8 | 1545 |
| 116 | Piz Corvatsch | 33.5 | 850 |
| 96 | Samedan | 27.6 | 700 |
| 128 | San Bernardino | 73.4 | 1864 |
| 98 | Scuol | 27.3 | 693 |
| 147 | Weissfluhjoch | 55.0 | 1397 |
Reference
Office fédéral de météorologie et de climatologie MétéoSuisse. Standards 1961-1990.