Annual rainfall in Switzerland increased about 120 mm (8%) during the last century. In the northern and western part of the alpine area, mean winter precipitation increased by about 20 to 30% (34). Heavy daily precipitation and heavy precipitation lasting between 3 to 4 days increased in autumn and winter in large parts of the midlands and the northern edge of the Alps . Since evaporation rose in parallel to the warming by 106 mm (24%), the mean annual runoff remained virtually equal.
The results from an analysis of the maxima of long-term (1900–2012) daily precipitation records from a densely sampled Central European station network, spanning Austria, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, support the expected tendency of increasing extreme precipitation intensity with continuing global warming. The increase is approximately 7-8% per degree Celcius, both for short- and long-duration events.