Hailstorms Hail causes damage to vineyards in western Switzerland
Hailstorms over parts of the cantons of Vaud and Bern left their mark on agriculture at the weekend. Vineyards in Lavaux and Nord-Vaudois as well as areas in the Emmental and Bernese Jura were particularly affected.
24.06.2025, 11:03
SDA
Around 400 to 500 damage reports were received from these regions, as reported by the Schweizer Hagel cooperative and insurance company on Tuesday. The exact amount of the total damage cannot yet be finally quantified, but initial indications suggest that up to a third of the grape harvest could be lost in some locations.
In the Vaud region of Lavaux, the villages of Rivaz, Saint Saphorin, Lutry, Aran and Grandvaux were particularly hard hit. Reports of considerable damage were also received in Chavornay.
Last Saturday, a small high-altitude low with cooler high-altitude air set an unstable situation in motion. This resulted in rapidly developing thunderstorms with intense lightning activity and hailstones up to around two centimetres in diameter, Schweizer Hagel wrote.
