The Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research said in a study that temperatures in Switzerland increased by an average of 0.57 degrees Celsius per decade over the past 30 years, compared to an average 0.25-degree hike for the entire northern hemisphere.

Spring and winter were the seasons most affected, with an average increase in Switzerland of 0.8 degrees Celsius per decade during the same period, the institute said in a statement.

A graph in the study indicated that the pace of the temperature increase in the country picked up considerably from the 1980s onwards.

One of the authors, Martine Rebetez, said the trend helped explain the retreat of Alpine glaciers as well as the early blossomming during spring.

Rebetez said the speed of global warming in Switzerland was due to the country's distance from major oceans that help cool the atmosphere by absorbing part of the heat, as well as its relatively high latitude.

"The closer you are to the North Pole, the more you can record energy and heat radiation," she told AFP.

Northern Sweden, Russia and part of China are experiencing the same trend as Switzerland, Rebetez added.

The study carried out with fellow scientist Michael Reinhardt was based on data collected from 12 sites in the country at altitudes ranging from 316 to 2,490 metres (1,037 to 8,169 feet).

It was published in the scientific journal Theoretical and Applied Climatology.

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