Since 1972, we have been systematically recording the damage caused by storms on behalf of the federal government on the basis of media reports. This has resulted in a database with currently more than 28,000 entries. This data helps in hazard assessment.
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Damage originating from naturally triggered floods, debris flows, landslides and rockfalls is included in the database that is financed by the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN. The corresponding weather conditions are also noted in the database. Not considered is damage from avalanches, snow pressure, earthquake, lithening, hail, windstorm and drought. In this way, a database with currently more than 27'000 entries has been generated.
The total inflation-adjusted loss amount since 1972 is over CHF 15 billion CHF. The figure below shows that these costs are dominated by a few major events. The event of the 21th/22th of August 2005, with damage amounting to nearly 3'000 million CHF in total, is the most costly flood in Switzerland that's recorded in the database.
The spatial distribution of the damage from 1972 to 2023 and during some large events can be viewed on an interactive map.
The database can be analysed in terms of location, extent, causes and the temporal and spatial distribution of the storm events. The results are published yearly in the Journal "Wasser Energie Luft".
The damage data are provided to official institutions on request as a broad information basis for hazard assessment.
