Get ready for a summer that’s quite good.

That’s if you believe in an old Swiss German tradition which forecasts the weather for the upcoming season by timing how long it takes for an effigy of a snowman’s head, or Böögg as it’s known, to explode.

This year it took 12 minutes and seven seconds precisely for the firework laden model to go bang.

That was at the finale of Zurich’s Sechseläuten festival yesterday.

President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was the guest of honour of the Fraumünster Society, a women’s group which is not invited to take part in the official parade, but has to set out 45 minutes earlier.