Swiss Review 5/2020

Swiss Review / September 2020 / No.5 12 Report Another one for the record books: in 2006, temperatures in La Brévine reached 36 degrees. Cold weather, warm hearts Nevertheless, the summer nights re- main chilly with the possibility of frost from mid-August onwards. In any case, tourists arrive in La Brévine with their own thermometer inmind. “People tell me it’s not all that cold,” says the manager of the sports shop. Even if it’s a few degrees warmer in winter now, higher up in the 20 km- long valley, the work of agricultural workers is still harder than elsewhere in Switzerland. In Cernil, at 1,200 me- tres in altitude, Kevin and Grégory Huguenin tell of their days spent out in the cold looking after their 100-strong cattle herd.Work begins at 5am, sometimes with a few strikes of a pickaxe to unfreeze the doors and a blowtorch to heat up the ends of the drinking pipes. “It’s a constant battle against the cold,” remarks Grégory, who remembers his first winter work- ing in Cernil, with a thermometer showing -15 degrees and almost -30 degrees at the farmbelow, inBrouillet. Despite, or perhaps because of, this the two young brothers, who represent the seventh generation of Huguenins to live in the valley, love their region. The cold weather warms local hearts. “Around here, you can knock on any- one’s door and they’ll invite you in to eat,” says Kevin. “There aren’t a lot of people living in the valley, around 1,500perhaps, but the people are there for each other,” adds his brother. Crisp summer nights In summer, the valley and its three vil- lages, of which La Brévine is the only coldweather record holder, transform into a haven of sunny, crisp evenings. At two kilometres fromthe village, the Lac des Taillières is frozen in winter. But in summer, its murky waters see windsurfers and kitesurfers galore. The steppe-like high plateau offers countless scenic hiking paths, includ- ing notably a trail of border markers set out in 1819 touching the edge of neighbouring France. A historic walk incorporates 18 information panels, which provide an insight into this land of frost and snow. Geneviève Kohler, President of the society for lo- cal development, takes us to station number 13, a beautiful building and home to the parents of the Huguenin brothers. The lodge hides an old fer- The secrets of the cold In reality, the icy climate of La Brévine is caused by several factors. The main one is that the village is set in a closed off depression, where the cold stag- nates, creating a metrological phenomenon called a “cold air lake”. For this phenomenon to occur, there needs to be high atmospheric pressure, a clear sky and an absence of wind and snow. In such situations, the neighbouring passes and mountaintops can show a difference of up to 30 degrees in temperature compared to the valley below. This is what was shown by a study completed in 2014 by the Institute of Geography at the University of Neuchâtel. (SH) ruginous spring, once known for its restorative qualities. Another noteworthy body of wa- ter is the village stream. Known as “le Bied”, it disappears into a sinkhole, a sort of natural well, only to reappear in the Val-de-Travers. The part in La Brévine, set in the heart of the village, resembles something of a canyon. In 2018, the hole became clogged and overflowed, causing a flood. “People had 30 cmof water in their homes,” re- calls the mayor of the commune. For themanager of theHôtel-de-Ville, this is one of the factors explaining the Si- berian climate of La Brévine. “In other mountain valleys in Neuchâtel, the water flows along the surface and car- ries the cold away with it,” explains Jean-Daniel Oppliger. “But here, le Bied disappears and the cold is left be- hind.” Could this be the real explana- tion? Perhaps, although the extreme temperatures of La Brévine couldhave a thousand explanations. A wintery La Brévine. Provided there is enough snow on the ground, the village is a mecca for snow- shoe walkers and particularly cross- country skiers. Photo: Keystone Reproduced by permission of the Federal Office of Topography, swisstopo (BA200147)