Today
Has it rained enough in Zurich?
The last rain heavy enough to soak in fell over a week ago. What has fallen since wet the leaves and no more.
Zurich has had 22.1mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal September here brings 90.8mm — and the driest September in the last 30 years still managed 31.5mm. This is drier than anything on that record.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
15 SeptToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
one day of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Zurich through a normal year
Across a normal year Zurich gets about 1156.7mm of rain, most of it in July (125.5mm) and least in February (70.3mm).
A normal September in Zurich has rain on 14 days. Only 10 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Zurich one of the wetter places this site covers in Europe in September — 16th of 116, against Salzburg at the wet end (166.3mm) and Athens at the dry end (19.4mm).
JFebMAMJJulASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.