What is the best weather for skydiving? The most popular question we get here at Skydive Interlaken! This is because everyone’s skydiving dream depends on one thing, you guessed it – the weather. In this article, we will do our best to explain the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to skydiving and different weather patterns.

Our dropzone is located one of the most beautiful places in the world – the Swiss Alps! Alpine climates have rapidly changeable weather which is extremely hard to predict – even for professionals. Weather apps are totally unreliable, and should not be used to determine whether or not we will skydive on a particular day. Here at Skydive Interlaken, we can jump on most days of the year, and the different types of weather can make the landscape even more diverse and exciting. Therefore, if you are interested in booking, don’t bother checking the weather apps – just book! If we are certain that you will not be able to skydive due to weather we will contact you the day before to keep you informed.

The Good…

Blue skies (and no wind)
A skydivers dream. Blue skies (and no wind) make the day of skydiving stress-free. No need to worry about the weather coming in and slowing us down; we can just jump and enjoy the sunshine! When you see blue skies, and no wind – you will have no problems skydiving on this day.

Blue skies and some clouds
Blue skies with a few clouds around actually make the experience even more exciting! So if you see a few fluffy clouds around on the day of your jump, don’t worry, they will make your experience even more interesting.

The bad…

Wind

Strong winds are bad news for skydivers. High winds can push a parachute into places that skydivers really should not be – like over the town, lake or mountains. And even if the parachutes are able to make it back to the landing area, a strong wind can give a very dramatic backwards landing – so jumping in too much wind is a no-go!

Fog
A fog layer can look beautiful from the top! But again, can make things difficult for skydiving. The helicopter can usually find its way above the fog layer, but then we can’t see the ground – which can be a problem if we want to land safely back on the dropzone. We don’t carry a GPS and neither do the helicopter pilots, so if there is fog then we will wait until it clears.

Rain/Snow
Flying in the rain/snow sounds like fun! But unfortunately, if a parachute gets saturated with water when flying, it can get too heavy, and stall, which means the parachute (and the skydivers attached) will fall out of the sky… not ideal! So, any type of rain system, whether it be a small shower or a lightning storm is an absolute no-go for skydiving.

And the Ugly (but also beautiful?)…

Föhn

An added danger here in the Alps is a very strong, warm wind called the Föhn (in English it translates to “hairdryer”). Caused by a large pressure difference between the two sides of the Alps (Lugano and Zurich), this weather creates beautiful lenticular clouds (see below image), and the air feels warm – but can be absolutely deadly for those who fly.

In this type of weather system, the wind can go from 0 to 150km/h within a minute, so you can understand why this is the most dangerous type of weather for us skydivers. When the Föhn is high, we usually keep our feet firmly on the ground.

Here at Skydive Interlaken, our number 1 priority is safety! We have been jumping in this exact spot for 20 years, so it is safe to say we know this area and the different weather patterns well. This means, you never have to worry about the weather or your safety when you come to skydive with us.

If you would like to see what the weather is doing right now, you can always check out our live webcams here.

For more details about Interlaken, check out our website.