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| - The Swiss Alps with some of the highest mountains in Europe, who's tops are on occasion covered in local glaciers and with lakes in many of there valleys. The Alps spread in to neighboring Liechtenstein, France's Savoy Region, the far south of Germany, the Austrian Tirol and the upper reaches of northern Italy. ~60% of Switzerland is in the extremely mountainous mid and southern Alpine Mountains region. ~30% are hills and relatively flat valleys carved out by glaciers called "Mittelland" (English: Midlands) in the north and middle. ~10% come in the form a chain of older, Jurassic Era, mountains called the Jura Mountains that run through the north and along the western border, as well as partly over the border in to France. Basel is a small enclave of the Rhine River Valley, Aaragau is a similar flat land and far south is pre-Alpine flat land. Bern lies on the Swiss plateau in the Canton of Bern, slightly west of the center of Switzerland and 20 km (12 mi) north of the Bernese Alps. The countryside around Bern was formed by glaciers during the most recent Ice Age. The canton of Aargau is one of the least mountainous Swiss cantons, forming part of a great table-land, to the north of the Alps and the east of the Jura, above which rise low hills and wooded or farmed valleys. The Swiss climate is generally temperate, but can vary greatly between the nations varied localities. It can range from from glacial conditions on the mountaintops to the often pleasant near Mediterranean climate at Switzerland's southern tip around Ticino canton. The large alpine type areas like Graubünden remain drier than pre-Alpine areas and as in the main valley of the Valais, were wine grapes are grown. The wettest conditions persist in the high Alps and in the Ticino canton which has both periods of heavy rain and bright sun from time to time A Chinook Wind like weather phenomenon known as the föhn can occur at any time of the year and is characterised by an unexpectedly warm wind, with rain falling in in the south of the country and dry winds in the mountain and central plateau. Zürich has, depending on the definition used, nominally an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb), with four distinct seasons. The Foehn wind, which plays an important role in the northern alpine valleys, has also some impact on Zürich. The climate of Geneva is temperate, oceanic (Köppen: Cfb). Winters are cool, usually with light frosts at night and thawing conditions during the day. Summers are pleasantly warm and winters are not to severe. Zürich is the most populated town today with ~300,000 people and has been the lead population cener a century. It is sometimes referred to as "Downtown Switzerland" for publicity reasons. About 40% speak the local Züritüütsch dialect and a total of about 65% the population speak Swiss Standard German or it's dialects.
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