There's a strong wind blowing in the innerschweiz right now. Anything that is not battened down is being blown away. It feels like a hurricane without the rain. Scary.

Isn't that called Föhn?

A freaking Föhnsturm. It's calmed down a bit now. Maybe now I can sleep.

I saw them forecasting winds of 100km/h plus, I hope it's not like that.

Related threads:

Föhn, Fun, Föhn

Föhn headaches?

...and dust from the Sahara, you should be able to smell it.

My wife and I were walking down by Lake Geneva last night at around 22:30 and the wind was incredibly warm, it was like being in the Mediterranean or the tropics. As we came up from the lake into more built up areas there were occassional pockets of cool air where the wind wasn't coming through. Really bizarre but not at all unpleasant, we felt like we were on holiday.

Overnight they were demonic though.

Was very windy here this Morning everything blowing Away neighbours Sand Box Lid flew over into our Garden its stopped now.

Exactly 50 years ago, when I was 14, during spring break, I decided to pay a visit to my Grandma, which meant a bike ride of about 65 km from St. Gallen to Buchs SG in the Rhine Valley. Dad had a car, but no time to take me there. No issue.

Trouble was, when I rode around the Heldsberg between St. Margrethen and Au at the very northwesternmost (EDIT: northeastermost, of course!) corner of Switzerland, I got hit by the first Föhn storm of that spring.

The wind was so strong, it was downright impossible to pedal against it. I virtually got blown off my bike and had to push it from St. Margrethen through all the little vintner villages along the hills into Altstätten and then through the plain to Oberriet.

Between Oberriet and Rüthi, there is the Hirschensprung, a tiny, very narrow ravine. The road is on the bottom of the ravine and very steep. They did some digging in the seventies to make it a bit flatter, but in the early sixties the slope grade was 14%.

Believe it or not, I had to push my bike even down that grade, because the wind got funneled into the ravine. Believe me, I felt pretty silly, because on former occasions I had had to learn that there was a serious risk of overheating the brakes on that spot.

Instead of taking the main road in the plain between Sennwald and Buchs, I followed the somewhat longer old road that hugs the foot of the mountains through Gams and Grabs. There I expected some lee effect from the Alvier-Margelchopf mountain range. But the wind-sheltered zone was reached only in Grabs, just a few kilometers from my destination.

All in all I had to push my bike against the Föhn for about 40 km. Instead of arriving at Grandma's for lunch, I got a belated supper. And boy, did I sleep that night!

It hasn't been windy here, but I did have a "spidey sense" last night that the weather was changing.

Ok, thanks guys for the winds, they just made it here this morning..super wild. I can hear the shutters smacking all over the city, since everyone is out at the flee market, they left their windows open, too.

Still warm here, but the waves on lake Leman are gymbalz. The lake is dark blue green, amazing.

Yesterday night was warmer outside than inside the building. And that was central Geneva!

I thought it was fantastic. Nice warm wind, sitting outside having a drink and a smoke, with nice music playing in the background. Do not know why people complain about the Föhn. Was a good change from the Hamburg cold winds I had to endure for the last few days.

We went to a park this morning and flew our kites. Fantastic!

I was up Pilatus yesterday, and we were almost blown off the top of the mountain The youngest son (4) was walking with the wind on our way back from the restaurant to the cablecar station, for two steps - and then he was running, in order to keep his feet under him! He was scared that he'd hit the glass doors at a run, he said later ...

Went for a ride towards Grindlewald along the valley yesterday and some serious damage done by the wind, roofs ripped of on a couple of houses, many trees down and a couple of farm buildings looking very second hand.

Not per definition, but the lack of precipitation does hint at it.

Föhn


Though, everyone seems to have their own definition and corollated ailment these days...

A friend of mine posted a picture today of the result of the wind in Chamonix dumping the local bus shelter into the river..crazy stuff..

A caravan from the local campsite ended up in the river too.

Freak weather in the UK too, where they went to a terrible drought to lots of flooding now, as the ground is so hard it is not taking the water! One man died drowned in his car in Hampshire today.

Thanks Fridge, although I don't need Wikipedia to know what Föhn is. I have been living in a typical Föhn area for 55 years. In other words, I was teasing olygirl.