A Blog of the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Like much of Europe, Winterthur experienced hot weather during the summer of 2026. During heatwaves, however, nighttime temperatures are just as important as daytime temperatures. When the air stays warm throughout the night, people have fewer opportunities to recover from the heat of the day. To investigate nighttime temperatures in more detail, we measured four […]
In the previous post we got a first glimpse at the hot summer 2026 and the measurement network in Winterthur. Now the season is over and the summer 2026 will be remembered as a season of relentless heat. From early June through the end of August, residents experienced repeated heatwaves, prolonged warm nights, and only […]
If you stepped outside last week, you didn’t need a thermometer to tell you that summer had arrived. At the end of June, Switzerland experienced a historic heatwave, with over 40 meteorological stations across the country recording new temperature records for the month. Maximum daytime temperatures exceeded 38°C at several locations, and many regions experienced […]
As part of the Atmospheric Physics and Applied Meteorology course for Aviation studies at ZHAW, we carry out a vertical sounding of the atmosphere during lab hours. A radiosonde is attached to a weather balloon which then ascends through the atmosphere, measuring temperature, moisture, pressure, altitude, and its location along the way. As the balloon […]
Once again, it’s Hot in the city! with yesterday’s air temperatures above 30 °C across Switzerland and exceeding 34 °C in Basel. Cities struggle with this excessive heat and are exploring ways to protect their citizens and make the outdoor spaces more pleasant. We have already written about the exciting outdoor spray mist cooling pilot […]
In our endeavor to comprehend urban climate and the emergence and impact of heat islands, we have already undertaken several projects, as regular readers of our blog are aware. These include temperature measurements in the cities of Zurich and Winterthur. While these two measurement networks differ in their setup – in Zurich, the measurement stations […]
In spring three years ago, in the middle of the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic in Switzerland, we packed up our measurement system (SMARTEMIS) and drove to Zurich Airport to record unique air quality data near the airport area. At this time, aircraft movements had dropped by more than 90% compared to the previous […]
Whereas Billy Idol enjoyed the hot summer nights in New York City, many urban dwellers nowadays wish for colder urban environments. We at ZAV investigate the urban climate and potential measures to mitigate the increasingly high temperatures within the urban heat island. Zurich’s dense urban measurement network provides an ideal dataset for comparison with and […]
Almost exactly 4 years ago, we started planning an urban climate measurement network for Zurich together with meteoblue AG as part of an Innosuisse project. If we had known at the time how much work it would take to set up and maintain such a measuring network, we would probably have left it alone. Fortunately, […]
Cities globally seek to improve the quality of living and consequently pay great attention to the effects of new constructions on the surrounding. Furthermore, there is a great demand for evaluating methods to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Exemplarily, the city of Zurich mapped out strategies on how to approach the urban heat problem […]
