Snow variability in the Swiss Alps 1864-2009

We present a climate analysis of nine unique Swiss Alpine new snow series that have been newly digitized. The stations cover different altitudes (450–1860 m asl) and all time series cover more than 100 years (one from 1864 to 2009). In addition, data from 71 stations for the last 50–80 years for new snow and snow depth are analysed to get a more complete picture of the Swiss Alpine snow variability. Important snow climate indicators such as new snow sums (NSS), maximum new snow (MAXNS) and days with snowfall (DWSF) are calculated and variability and trends analysed. Series of days with snow pack (DWSP) ≥ 1 cm are reconstructed with useful quality for six stations using the daily new snow, local temperature and precipitation data. Our results reveal large decadal variability with phases of low and high values for NSS, DWSF and DWSP. For most stations NSS, DWSF and DWSP show the lowest values recorded and unprecedented negative trends in the late 1980s and 1990s. For MAXNS, however, no clear trends and smaller decadal variability are found but very large MAXNS values (>60 cm) are missing since the year 2000. The fraction of NSS and DWSP in different seasons (autumn, winter and spring) has changed only slightly over the ∼150 year record. Some decreases most likely attributable to temperature changes in the last 50 years are found for spring, especially for NSS at low stations. Both the NSS and DWSP snow indicators show a trend reversal in most recent years (since 2000), especially at low and medium altitudes. This is consistent with the recent ‘plateauing’ (i.e. slight relative decrease) of mean winter temperature in Switzerland and illustrates how important decadal variability is in understanding the trends in key snow indicators.

Von der Bezeugung zur narrativen Vergegenwärtigung. Fokalisierung im Reisebuch des Syrers Ḥanna Dyāb (1764)

Travelogues involve different truth claims, depending on whether their authors attempt on the one hand to convey received knowledge about entities and places, or on the other hand, present accounts of the traveler character’s own experiences. This study focuses on a travelogue from 1764 written by the Arabian Nights’ Syrian storyteller, Ḥanna Dyāb. Having written his travelogue more than 50 years after his trip to Paris, he evidently conceived of his narrative as a means to re-enact his experiences as a young traveler. To describe his particular self-staging in this autodiegetic narration “before fiction” (Paige 2011), I argue that an understanding of focalization as a graded visual mediation between the character’s inner life and the reader is needed. This approach helps one grasp how, with reference to Dyāb’s travelogue, truth is not something the traveler witnesses, but rather something the reader is invited to realize. I conclude that, with this shift from witnessing to visualization (Vergegenwärtigung), Dyāb’s travelogue fulfills a core function of literature.