Fete du Froid, La Brévine
No one will doubt how cold it is right now – but has the record for the coldest place in Switzerland been broken?
Well, not officially.
The official record is kept at La Brevin in the canton of Neuchâtel. In 1987, the temperature dropped to minus 41.8.
The commune makes the most of its fame and hosts a Cold Festival every year.
But only measurements collected by MeteoSuisse are accepted into the record books.
Cold hunter Stefan Vogt says the mercury dropped to minus 42.3 in Zegistalsee in the Bernese Highlands last Friday. But it won’t be recognized because it’s unofficial.
But even this may not be a record – unofficial measurements carried out in 1991 in Glattalp in the canton of Schwyz showed that the temperature dropped to minus 52.5.
But La Brévine is still the official record holder, with the cold festival taking place this year next month.
