The Coldest Night Since 18 Years

The overnight temperature in a village near Switzerland's border with France  sank to minus 34.4 degrees Celsius (minus 29.9 Fahrenheit), the coldest in the country this winter and close to a record low, weather forecasters said.

The low temperature was recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in the mountain village of La Brevine in the Neuchatel canton, part of a region often called the "Swiss Siberia."

It was seven degrees Celsius less frigid than the national record low of minus 41.8 degrees, recorded in the same region on January 12, 1987, the weather office said.