SRF Meteo - the forecasting arm of the Swiss national broadcaster SRF - has come under fire for its wildly inaccurate weather predictions for destinations across Europe. Some in the media, members of the government and the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) claim the inaccurate readings are part of a climate alarmist agenda designed to stoke fear in the lead-up to the federal elections in October, an accusation SRF vehemently denies.

SVP accuse Swiss broadcaster of climate alarmism

In a piece published by Weltwoche, the newspaper accused the national broadcaster of publishing deliberate and false high temperatures in its weather forecasts for Europe. According to 20 Minuten, forecasts for the Mediterranean region can be up to eight degrees celsius too high.

Weltwoche, which is edited by SVP National Councillor Roger Köppel, then accused SRF of deliberately raising temperature forecasts for political reasons. “The thesis: the hotter it supposedly is, the more important the issue of climate change becomes. That gives the Greens [a boost] in the election campaign”, the newspaper wrote.

This idea soon gained traction within the SVP, with National Councillor Thomas Matter personally denouncing the misleading forecasts. “If you abuse SRF Meteo in an election year to advance the climate agenda, that’s big”, he told TeleZüri. The SVP has a long history of dispute with SRF, regularly accusing it of having an anti-right wing bias - although it must be noted that every Swiss political party has at one point accused the public broadcaster of being biased against their views.

Inaccurate forecasts caused by technical fault, SRF argues

Speaking to the Luzerner Zeitung, SRF Meteo editor Thomas Bucheli said that the “accusation of deliberate falsification is completely absurd." He explained that the high-temperature forecasts were not deliberately designed to boost the Green Party in the polls, but were instead caused by an error in their technical reporting that was itself spurred on by climate change.

Bucheli explained that the excessively hot weather across the Mediterranean in recent months caught many forecasters - and their software systems - off guard. After the heatwaves died down, based on precedence, their software continued to predict weather that was way too hot, creating the vastly inaccurate forecasts reported by Weltwoche.

SRF explained that while they have occasionally received complaints about inaccurate temperature forecasts in Europe in the past, the phenomenon has been brought to a head by the recent heatwaves. The readings from Europe, sent automatically to the broadcaster, are generated by older software that is bad at reacting to extreme weather changes, meaning they are more prone to making the wrong predictions when conditions fluctuate - something all forecasters have to deal with as the climate continues to change. 

Bucheli assured that the inaccurate data only applies to forecasts for other parts of Europe, noting that weather predictions for Swiss cities and cantons are made using a different, more accurate algorithm. He concluded that the forecast broadcast every night will remain accurate and that they are analysing the data from Europe to try and find a solution.

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