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 1991 to 2020.

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 Chasseral mountain and the resort towns of Zermatt and Montana.

Average yearly precipitation
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
141 Chasseral 54.9 1396
106 Evolène 28.9 734
121 Fribourg 37.9 962
108 Geneva (Genève) 37.2 946
89 Grächen 23.9 607
157 Great St Bernard Pass  89.9 2285
146 La Chaux-de-Fonds  54.7 1389
118 Lausanne 44.6 1132
104 Montana 32.8 834
118 Neuchâel (Neuenburg) 37.6 956
111 Nyon 39.1 994
112 Payerne 33.6 854
82 Sion (Sitten) 23.0 583
90 Zermatt 25.2 640

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.

Even more precipitation falls on the mountain peak Säntis, near Schwägalp. At 2502 metres (8209 feet) elevation it's the highest point in the Appenzell Alps.

Annual averages for rainfall plus snowfall
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
123 Aarau 36.2 920
140 Adelboden 51.3 1303
118 Basel 33.1 842
122 Bern (Bären) 40.2 1022
151 Engelberg 61.7 1568
138 Gütsch 56.0 1423
122 Güttingen 37.4 951
127 Interlaken 46.4 1178
133 Lucerne (Luzern) 50.8 1291
155 Mount Pilatus 70.5 1791
168 Säntis 111.8 2840
123 Schaffhausen 38.0 966
141 St. Gallen 56.4 1433
136 Wädenswil 53.6 1362
130 Zürich 43.6 1108

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.

High-altitude locations include Gütsch located above Andermatt at 2286 m. 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).

Average amount of rain and snow a year
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
139 Arosa 46.4 1179
105 Chur 33.5 852
108 Cimetta 63.4 1609
125 Davos 41.2 1046
119 Disentis (Mustér) 44.3 1126
142 Glarus 58.8 1494
101 Locarno 73.0 1855
100 Lugano 61.7 1567
135 Piz Corvatsch  51.9 1317
92 Samedan 28.0 710
124 San Bernardino 64.4 1637
95 Scuol 27.9 708
97 Stabio 61.4 1560
148 Weissfluhjoch 56.6 1439
Reference

Swiss federal authorities. Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss. Normal values per measured parameter.

Switzerland Precipitation
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