Events In Switzerland Research Articles

An open-source radar-based hail damage model for buildings and cars

Abstract. Severe hailstorms result in substantial damage to buildings and vehicles, necessitating the quantification of associated risks. Here, we present a novel open-source hail damage model for buildings and cars based on single-polarization radar data and 250 000 geolocated hail damage reports in Switzerland from 2002 to 2021. To this end, we conduct a detailed evaluation of different radar-based hail intensity measures at 1 km resolution and find that the maximum expected severe hail size (MESHS) outperforms the other measures, despite a considerable false-alarm ratio. Asset-specific hail damage impact functions for buildings and cars are calibrated based on MESHS and incorporated into the open-source risk modelling platform CLIMADA. The model successfully estimates the correct order of magnitude for the number of damaged building in 91 %, their total cost in 77 %, the number of damaged vehicles in 74 %, and their total cost in 60 % of over 100 considered large hail events. We found considerable uncertainties in hail damage estimates, which are largely attributable to limitations of radar-based hail detection. Therefore, we explore the usage of crowdsourced hail reports and find substantially improved spatial representation of severe hail for individual events. By highlighting the potential and limitations of radar-based hail size estimates, particularly MESHS, and the utilization of an open-source risk modelling platform, this study represents a significant step towards addressing the gap in risk quantification associated with severe hail events in Switzerland.

Participatory development of storymaps to visualize the spatiotemporal dynamics and impacts of extreme flood events for disaster preparedness

Floods are one of the costliest natural hazards in Switzerland and worldwide. Therefore, society is confronted with questions about protecting people and assets from flood risks. Key instruments are protective measures, land use regulations, spatial planning, and the interventions by civil protection units if flood magnitudes exceed the protection standards. Both prevention and preparedness require risk awareness from professionals, politicians, and the public. Risk awareness is generally high after an event and low after a period without major events. However, the rarity of extreme flood events limits learning from flood events. The training of intervention forces who should manage flood events with magnitudes beyond hitherto observed flood events requires a comprehensive description and visualization of the flood processes and their impacts. To address this, together with stakeholders and civil protection and intervention planning experts, we co-developed a new way to visualize the spatiotemporal dynamics of extreme flood events and thereby communicate their impacts using dynamical flood storymaps. We selected physically plausible precipitation scenarios from reforecasts to develop storylines of extreme river flood events and their socioeconomic impacts in Switzerland. The co-development process revealed which information is relevant to potential users and how it must be presented. It is shown that storylines of extreme events presented as storymaps are a valuable tool to communicate scientific results in a way that allows practitioners to gain relevant information for their work. Therefore, we built an interactive online tool (www.flooddynamics.ch), enabling the user to analyze the spatiotemporal unfolding of flood events in Switzerland from the start of precipitation to the recession of the flood. The visualization includes maps of inundated areas at hourly timesteps and the related impacts in terms of affected persons, buildings, roads, and infrastructure. Such a temporally explicit (dynamic) representation of extreme events in storymaps, in contrast to static hazard maps, which are commonly used today, is favorable for emergency intervention planning and training and thus for awareness creation and better disaster preparedness.

Grinding to the Summit

Studer’s annual Motion Meeting has not been held live since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic but it returned last month to Steffisburg. Justin Burns attended the event in Switzerland to hear about the latest technology rolled out and how business is

Analysing the media repertoires that Swiss expatriates use to inform themselves about their heritage country

ABSTRACT For people who migrate, the media are an important source of information about their heritage country. However, we know little about which media expatriates from wealthy countries like Switzerland use to inform themselves about their heritage country. Using data from a readership survey of the Swiss Revue, the official publication of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), we investigate the media consumption of Swiss expatriates. We identify five distinct media repertoires of Swiss expatriates when they inform themselves about their heritage country. How strongly individuals are connected to Switzerland correlates with the intensity of media consumption. We show that the less connected individuals are to Switzerland, the less they use the media for information about their heritage country. Specifically, expatriates who are registered as Swiss voters more often consult the media to follow events in Switzerland than individuals who are not eligible to vote.

Productivity loss and indirect costs in the year following acute coronary events in Switzerland

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is highly prevalent in Switzerland and a leading cause of death. Associated productivity loss and indirect costs have rarely been studied. We investigated these factors in the first year after ACS in 24 Swiss patients (mean (SD) age 56 (8) years, 79% male). Data on patient productivity loss, absenteeism, presenteeism and caregiver assistance, were collected with the Productivity Cost Questionnaire during a routine cardiologist visit 3 to 12 months after hospitalisation for ACS and at least 4 weeks after patients returned to work. To estimate costs, lost hours were converted into 8-hour workdays, pro-rated to 1 year, combined with time off work due to initial hospitalisation and sick leave, and valued at Swiss labour costs. Additional data came from medical records. ACS patients lost on average (SD, range) 79 (81, 0.3–294) workdays; 38 (36, 0.3–153) days due to the initial hospitalisation and sick leave, 37 (75, 0–243) due to absenteeism after patients returned to work, and 4 (11, 0–41) due to presenteeism. Caregivers lost 10 (23, 0–90) additional workdays. The total indirect costs amounted to CHF 43,205 (44,026, 122–148,648); including CHF 18,514 (17,507, 122-74,619) for initial hospitalisation and sick leave and CHF 17,988 (36,394, 122–143,277) and CHF 1,849 (5181, 0–20,158) for absenteeism and presenteeism after patients returned to work, respectively. Costs of caregiver assistance amounted to CHF 4,855 (11,015, 0–43,843). This study showed that ACS patients lost on average 36% of their annual productive time. Caregivers lost an additional 5%. Lost work time was associated with substantial indirect costs that exceeded estimates of direct costs for ACS during 1 year. This suggests that costs and burden could be reduced through better risk reduction management.

Multi-year eddy-covariance measurements at a pre-alpine humid grassland site: Dataset overview, drought responses, and effects of land management

Impacts of drought events on terrestrial ecosystems have been studied extensively in the last decades in light of the long-term human-induced global warming trend and the recent occurrence of severe heat waves and droughts across the globe. The 2003 European summer heat wave sparked high attention towards such events in Switzerland, where ecosystems were largely affected again by summer dry periods in 2015 and 2018. With a newly applied processing scheme of calculating fluxes of net ecosystem exchange of CO2, latent and sensible heat from eddy-covariance measurements, the impact of droughts on GPP and exchange of energy between land and atmosphere are investigated at a managed grassland site in Switzerland. The rate of primary production is considerably reduced under the influence of dry conditions. This effect is further intensified by grassland management. Evapotranspiration, on the other hand, seems to be unaffected by the lack of precipitation at the site.

Patterns of care and economic consequences of using bone-targeted agents for castration-sensitive prostate cancer patients with bone metastases to prevent skeletal-related events in Switzerland - the SAKK 95/16 prostate study.

International guidelines state that bone-targeted agents such as denosumab or zoledronic acid at doses used for bone metastasis are not indicated for patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) with bone metastases. Whereas denosumab has never been studied in this patient population, zoledronic acid has been shown to be ineffective in decreasing the risk for skeletal-related events. This study estimates the prevalence and economic consequences of real-world use of bone-targeted agents for mCSPC patients in Switzerland. To estimate the frequency of bone-targeted agent administration and skeletal-related events, data from a non-interventional, cross-sectional survey involving oncologists across Switzerland (SAKK 95/16) was combined with data from the Swiss National Institute for Cancer Epidemiology and Registration (NICER). Economic parameters were calculated from the perspective of the healthcare system over the median time to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) progression for the extrapolated patient group, using data from NICER. The cost calculation covered costs for bone-targeted agents, their administration and skeletal-related events. The time to PSA progression (33.2 months), as well as the probability and cost of skeletal-related events were derived from the literature. The survey was answered by 86 physicians treating 417 patients, of whom 106 (25.4%) had prostate cancer, with 36 (34.0%) of these mCSPC. The majority of mCSPC patients (52.8%, n = 19) received bone-targeted agents monthly. Denosumab was the treatment of choice in 84.2% of patients (n = 16). Extrapolation using data from NICER indicated that 568 mCSPC patients may be treated with bone-targeted agents at doses used for bone metastasis  every year in Switzerland, leading to estimated total costs of more than CHF 8.3 million over 33.2 months. Because of its more frequent prescription and higher price, it appears that almost 93% of the total costs can be attributed to denosumab. For both denosumab and zoledronic acid, the most expensive components were the cost of administration and the drug cost, making up more than 90% of the total costs, with the rest being costs of skeletal-related events. This study found that the administration of bone-targeted agents in doses used for bone-metastatic diseases to prevent skeletal-related events is frequent in the setting of mCSPC and results in significant costs for the healthcare system.

Productivity loss and indirect costs in the year following acute coronary events in Switzerland

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is highly prevalent in Switzerland and a leading cause of death. Associated productivity loss and indirect costs have rarely been studied. We investigated these factors in the first year after ACS in 24 Swiss patients (mean (SD) age 56 (8) years, 79% male). Data on patient productivity loss, absenteeism, presenteeism and caregiver assistance, were collected with the Productivity Cost Questionnaire during a routine cardiologist visit 3 to 12 months after hospitalisation for ACS and at least 4 weeks after patients returned to work. To estimate costs, lost hours were converted into 8-hour workdays, pro-rated to 1 year, combined with time off work due to initial hospitalisation and sick leave, and valued at Swiss labour costs. Additional data came from medical records. ACS patients lost on average (SD, range) 79 (81, 0.3–294) workdays; 38 (36, 0.3–153) days due to the initial hospitalisation and sick leave, 37 (75, 0–243) due to absenteeism after patients returned to work, and 4 (11, 0–41) due to presenteeism. Caregivers lost 10 (23, 0–90) additional workdays. The total indirect costs amounted to CHF 43,205 (44,026, 122–148,648); including CHF 18,514 (17,507, 122-74,619) for initial hospitalisation and sick leave and CHF 17,988 (36,394, 122–143,277) and CHF 1,849 (5181, 0–20,158) for absenteeism and presenteeism after patients returned to work, respectively. Costs of caregiver assistance amounted to CHF 4,855 (11,015, 0–43,843). This study showed that ACS patients lost on average 36% of their annual productive time. Caregivers lost an additional 5%. Lost work time was associated with substantial indirect costs that exceeded estimates of direct costs for ACS during 1 year. This suggests that costs and burden could be reduced through better risk reduction management.

Modeling Nonstationary Extreme Dependence With Stationary Max-Stable Processes and Multidimensional Scaling

Modeling the joint distribution of extreme events at multiple locations is a challenging task with important applications. In this study, we use max-stable models to study extreme daily precipitation events in Switzerland. The nonstationarity of the spatial process at hand involves important challenges, which are often dealt with by using a stationary model in a so-called climate space, with well-chosen covariates. Here, we instead choose to warp the weather stations under study in a latent space of higher dimension using multidimensional scaling (MDS). Two methods are proposed to define target dissimilarity matrices, based respectively on extremal coefficients and on pairwise likelihoods. Results suggest that the proposed methods allow capturing complex spatial dependences of spatial extreme precipitations, enabling in turn to reliably extrapolate functionals such as extremal coefficients. Supplemental materials for this article are available online.

2D Runout Modelling of Hillslope Debris Flows, Based on Well-Documented Events in Switzerland

In mountain areas, mass movements, such as hillslope debris flows, pose a serious threat to people and infrastructure, although size and runout distances are often smaller than those of debris avalanches or in-channel-based processes like debris floods or debris flows. Hillslope debris-flow events can be regarded as a unique process that generally can be observed at steep slopes. The delimitation of endangered areas and the implementation of protective measures are therefore an important instrument within the framework of a risk analysis, especially in the densely populated area of the alpine region. Here, two-dimensional runout prediction methods are helpful tools in estimating possible travel lengths and affected areas. However, not many studies focus on 2D runout estimations specifically for hillslope debris-flow processes. Based on data from 19 well-documented hillslope debris-flow events in Switzerland, we performed a systematic evaluation of runout simulations conducted with the software Rapid Mass Movement Simulation: Debris Flow (RAMMS DF)—a program originally developed for runout estimation of debris flows and snow avalanches. RAMMS offers the possibility to use a conventional Voellmy-type shear stress approach to describe the flow resistance as well as to consider cohesive interaction as it occurs in the core of dense flows with low shear rates, like we also expect for hillslope debris-flow processes. The results of our study show a correlation between the back-calculated dry Coulomb friction parameters and the percentage of clay content of the mobilised soils. Considering cohesive interaction, the performance of all simulations was improved in terms of reducing the overestimation of the observed deposition areas. However, the results also indicate that the parameter which accounts for cohesive interaction can neither be related to soil physical properties nor to different saturation conditions.

Is familicide a distinct subtype of mass murder? Evidence from a Swiss national cohort.

Familicide is defined as the killing of a whole family and, numerically, a form of "mass murder" (more-or-less three simultaneous killings). Switzerland has a lower rate of homicide than most other countries but a comparatively high share of homicides within the family. The aim of this study is to describe a complete national sample of familicides and compare them with other types of mass murders in the country over the same period. All cases of three or more unlawful homicides in one event in Switzerland between 1972 and 2015 were identified from court records and socio-demographic, criminological, and psychological variables were extracted. Given small numbers, we rely on narrative comparisons. There were 20 familicides in the 43-year study, with 82 victims between them as well as six felony-associated mass murders accounting for 19 victims and nine public mass murders with 44 victims. Only one familicide was a woman; mean age was 39.5 years (range 19-57 years). Most were in employment. Only four had a prior psychiatric history. Nine had a history of violent or intrusive behaviour, but a prior criminal conviction was rare. In all but one case there was evidence of psychosocial stressors; eight men were facing separation from a spouse. Just over half used guns, but only three used army weapons. The main difference between the familicides and the other mass killers was the much higher rate of suicide among the familicides. Familicides in Switzerland appear to be rare suicidal acts, generally carried out by previously successful and apparently stable middle-aged men with often an inconspicuous psychiatric history or criminal record, differing considerably from other groups of mass killers. Expert responses, like the recently established multidisciplinary "threat management boards" in Switzerland, should bear in mind that the likely competent men involved may be good at covering their intent even from themselves.

Extremeness of recent drought events in Switzerland: dependence on variable and return period choice

Abstract. The 2018 drought event had severe ecological, economic, and social impacts. How extreme was it in Switzerland? We addressed this question by looking at different types of drought, including meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, and groundwater drought, and at the two characteristics deficit and deficit duration. The analysis consisted of three main steps: (1) event identification using a threshold-level approach, (2) drought frequency analysis, and (3) comparison of the 2018 event to the severe 2003 and 2015 events. In Step 2 the variables precipitation, discharge, soil moisture, and low-flow storage were first considered separately in a univariate frequency analysis; pairs of variables were then investigated jointly in a bivariate frequency analysis using a copula model for expressing the dependence between the two variables under consideration. Our results show that the 2018 event was especially severe in north-eastern Switzerland in terms of soil moisture, with return periods locally exceeding 100 years. Slightly longer return periods were estimated when discharge and soil moisture deficits were considered together. The return period estimates depended on the region, variable, and return period considered. A single answer to the question of how extreme the 2018 drought event was in Switzerland is therefore not possible – rather, it depends on the processes one is interested in.

Zehn Jahre Vegetationsdynamik auf der Waldbrandfläche von Leuk (Wallis)

Ten years of vegetation dynamics in a forest fire patch in Leuk (Valais) The stand-replacing forest fire of Leuk (2003) extends from 900 to 2100 m a.s.l. and covers an area of 300 ha, which represents a big disturbance event in Switzerland, although it is small in a global perspective. Its location along a wide elevational gradient has offered a unique opportunity to study the dynamics of plant species richness and natural tree regeneration in relation to different environmental drivers. The vegetation was assessed on a systematic grid including 148 relevé plots and 5 time steps. Results show a peak of species richness in the fourth year after the disturbance and a distinctly higher number of species compared to the pre-fire forests. The increase of species richness during the first four years was slower on plots with highest fire severity. Above 1600 m a.s.l. species richness rose quickly above average due to the appearance of various mountain species. Tree regeneration has advanced in all studied elevation belts. Ten years after the disturbance, sapling densities ≥25 cm reached a rather low level of 1800 to 3000 stems per hectare. Aspen (Populus tremula), willow (Salix appendiculata and S. caprea), as well as birch (Betula pendula) are most abundant up to 1700 m a.s.l., where up to 95% of the regeneration consists of broadleaves. Above, European larch (Larix decidua) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) each constitute 12% of the regenerating saplings. At lowest elevations, oaks (Quercus pubescens) have established more frequently (6.4%) after ten years than Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris; 3.7%), even though the proportion of these formerly stand-forming tree species is still quite modest compared to the total number of stems per ha. Looking ahead, a young forest will grow on the forest fire patch, developing towards a larch-spruce forest at high elevations and towards a mixed forest with a considerable proportion of oak at low elevations. It may take quite a while until prevailing aspen, willow and birch will be overgrown by conifers and oaks.

An evaluation of the convection‐permitting ensemble COSMO‐E for three contrasting precipitation events in Switzerland

Specific aspects of the performance of COSMO‐E, a newly operational convection‐permitting ensemble prediction system run by the Swiss national weather service, are evaluated for three contrasting precipitation events and compared with its driving model, the ECMWF ensemble (EC ENS). The events include locally triggered air‐mass convection on four consecutive days (CONV), a complex flood‐producing rainfall episode (LSF1), and a summertime cold‐frontal precipitation event (LSF2). Investigating the precipitation forecasts reveals that COSMO‐E outperforms EC ENS in all cases in terms of precipitation pattern, whereas both ensembles fail in predicting the correct domain‐averaged precipitation for LSF1 and struggle with the correct timing of the daily precipitation onset for CONV. For LSF2, EC ENS produces an almost perfect time series of domain‐averaged precipitation, but this seemingly excellent forecast fails in predicting the spatial distribution. Spread–error relationships also yield a rather complex picture. The higher resolution of COSMO‐E leads to increased spread and reduced underdispersion for near‐surface variables. However, in the free troposphere the two ensembles perform similarly, and the agreement of spread and error varies between cases, variables and levels. For both events with large‐scale advection, underdispersion occurs for mid‐tropospheric relative humidity near fronts, whose propagation is overconfident in EC ENS, while for the convective event COSMO‐E clearly shows larger spread than EC ENS. Because frontal propagation is largely determined by lateral boundary conditions, this underdispersion also occurs for COSMO‐E. In summary, this study confirms the benefit of a convection‐permitting model for many aspects of ensemble forecasting, and illustrates the challenge of robustly assessing the quality of an ensemble forecast for hydrometeorologically relevant events.

Large wood potential, piece characteristics, and flood effects in Swiss mountain streams

We present results of two studies on the (1) potential wood load in steep headwater streams and (2) properties of large wood (LW) transported in mountain rivers during the large August 2005 flood event in Switzerland. Ten headwater reaches of 1000 m length were surveyed in different regions of Switzerland. The potential wood load was estimated for in-channel deadwood, and possible driving factors were explored. Correlations were found with dead wood volume on hillslopes and mean channel width. We established size distributions of LW pieces and identified probable recruitment processes. Four reaches were resurveyed after an exceptionally severe flood in August 2005, showing limited LW transport in channels but considerable wood input by mass wasting processes. In addition, characteristics of deposits of LW along mountain rivers affected by the 2005 flood were investigated. Diameter and length distribution of transported and deposited pieces were comparable to those of LW from steep headwater streams, yet with considerably fewer long pieces in the deposits of mountain rivers. Most LW pieces were fresh wood, indicating that the portion of in-channel deadwood transported during the 2005 flood was limited. Findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of LW dynamics in Alpine mountain streams.

Temporal trends and epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus surgical site infection in the Swiss surveillance network: a cohort study

Staphylococcus aureus is the leading pathogen in surgical site infections (SSI). To explore trends and risk factors associated with S.aureus SSI. Risk factors for monomicrobial S.aureus SSI were identified from the Swiss multi-centre SSI surveillance system using multi-variate logistic regression. Both in-hospital and postdischarge SSI were identified using standardized definitions. Over a six-year period, data were collected on 229,765 surgical patients, of whom 499 (0.22%) developed monomicrobial S.aureus SSI; 459 (92.0%) and 40 (8.0%) were due to meticillin-susceptible S.aureus (MSSA) and meticillin-resistant S.aureus (MRSA), respectively. There was a significant decrease in the rate of MSSA SSI (P=0.007), but not in the rate of MRSA SSI (P=0.70). Independent protective factors for S.aureus SSI were older age [≥75 years vs <50 years: odds ratio (OR) 0.60, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44-0.83], laparoscopy/minimally invasive surgery (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.50-0.92), non-clean surgery [OR 0.78 (per increase in wound contamination class), 95% CI 0.64-0.94] and correct timing of pre-operative antibiotic prophylaxis (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.65-0.98). Independent risk factors were male sex (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.14-1.66), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists' score (per one-point increment: OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.13-1.51), re-operation for non-infectious reasons (OR 4.59, 95% CI 3.59-5.87) and procedure type: cardiac surgery, laminectomy, and hip or knee arthroplasty had two-to nine-fold increased odds of S.aureus SSI compared with other procedures. SSI due to S.aureus are decreasing and becoming rare events in Switzerland. High-risk procedures that may benefit from specific preventive measures were identified. Unfortunately, many of the independent risk factors are not easily modifiable.

Conrad Gessner is the father of West European bibliography (to 500&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; anniversary of the author of «Bibliotheca Universalis»)

The article consists of two parts. The first is dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Conrad Gessner (1516-1565), an outstanding Swiss scholar and bibliographer. He entered the history of bibliography and librarianship as a compiler of «Bibliotheca Universalis» published in 1545 at Christopher Froshower’s Printing House in Zurich. «Bibliotheca Universalis» is the first attempt to create an international bibliography of books printed in Greek, Latin and Judish, as well as biographical information about authors and their writings. In total, he described about 15,000 books belonging to almost five thousand authors. Over 12,000 books were systematized according to 21 sections (pandects), which had more than 250 subject-thematic headings. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the bibliographic language of «Bibliotheca Universalis». The second part of the article contains a description of the jubilee events dedicated to Conrad Hessner. They were the following: 1916 - the 400th anniversary celebration in Chicago; 1965 - meeting in Oxford, and 2016 - program of events in Switzerland.

Effects of increased participation on veteran running performance

ABSTRACTContrary to elite performance that is approaching an asymptote, recent analyses suggested a trend for improvement in veterans. This might be attributable to a disproportionate increase in older age-group participation. We extracted 26 years (1987–2012) of men’s results of a running event in Switzerland, “La Course de l’Escalade” (7.25 km). We investigated trends in performance by five-year age-groups, taking the 10, 20, 30, and 50 fastest in each group, and then the 1st, 5th, and 10th percentiles. Taking the 10, 20, 30 or 50 fastest runners there was a trend for improvement ranging from 0.07 to 0.22 min·year−1 (p < .0001; 95% CI −0.083 to −0.049 and p < .0001; 95% CI −0.250 to −0.196 respectively) in the elder age-groups. Taking the 1st, 5th, and 10th percentiles there were no trends for improvement, and actual deteriorations up to 0.13 (p < .0001; 95% CI +0.119 to +0.138) min·year−1. Mixed-effect models with repeated measures for runners, confirmed a global deteriorating trend with an estimate of +0.11 min·year−1 (p < .0001; 95% CI +0.107 to +0.116). The results suggest that increases in performance in older runners arise from modifications of sampling from a growing population.

Public Medical Preparedness at the “Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Games 2013”: Descriptive Analysis of 1,533 Patients Treated at the Largest 3-Day Sporting Event in Switzerland

Introduction. Medical preparedness at mass gatherings is challenging, as little is known about the optimal planning. Most studies and case reports are based on mass casualty incidents, so the results cannot be extrapolated to mass gatherings. Aim of this study was to evaluate the preclinical medical structure and the frequency of specific injuries and medical emergencies during the event. Methods. Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database. Three on-site medical assistance points were set up, completed by mobile teams, and coordinated by an on-site operational management team. Medical staff requirements were calculated using Maurer's formula. Results. A total of 1,533 patients were treated during the three-day event. Overall, the medical usage rate (MUR; patients per 10,000 visitors) was 51.1. A total of 58 patients (3.8%) required a hospital transfer. In 1,063 cases (69.3%) a diagnosis was documented. Of these, 503 patients (47.3%) suffered from hymenoptera stings; the two most common non-trauma-related diagnoses were alcohol/drug intoxication (4.1%) and gastrointestinal diseases (4.0%). Conclusion. Overall, the on-site medical care worked well. However, a high frequency of hymenoptera stings occurred, resulting in a shortage of antihistamine medication. Moreover, more than half of the patients were managed at the second largest medical assistance point. Prospective and critical evaluation of medical care at mass gatherings is crucial in order to optimize on-site medical preparedness at future events.

Rain-on-snow events in Switzerland: recent observations and projections for the 21st century

We analyze the temporal and spatial patterns of rain-on-snow (ROS) events during the last 4 decades in Switzerland and project the future occurrence of ROS events based on atmospheric warming under the A1B greenhouse gas emissions scenario. The results indicate that ROS events occur mainly during winter months at low elevations, and during summer months at high elevations. The solid/liquid precipitation ratio and the duration of the snowpack explain the spatio-temporal characteristics of ROS events. Observations indicate a trend towards a slight reduction in ROS events during the study period (1972−2012) due to decreasing rainfall, and a reduction in snowpack duration due to warming temperatures. However, increased warming may increase the frequency of ROS events in future decades, especially at high elevations (>2000 m) where the snowpack will still be present during most of the year, but liquid precipitation will become more frequent.