Geneva has a temperate oceanic climate ("Cfb" in the Köppen climate classification). Winters are cool and generally a little cloudy. During the winter, it is possible to have several days without thawing, and a day or two with severe freezes where the thermometer displays -10 °C. There are several days each month when, if anticyclonic conditions are stable, the clouds may stay for several days. From March, with temperatures rising it feels like summer in late May. However, the rain intensifies and often has a stormy character during the month of May. These may be short but strong storms depositing several centimetres of rain within just a few minutes. Summers are often hot and rather humid, although some may be more changeable, the mornings remain relatively fresh. During the summer season, the rains are less frequent but more intense. This is the season where you most likely get thunderstorms with hail. If the weather in early September is still hot, it cools down quickly to become really cold in November. The morning frosts are then reappearing. Autumn is also the season of mists, and the month of October is often the month with the most fog in the year. The fog can be very intense, restricting vision to less than 100 m in the areas outside the city.
The city's main newspaper is the Tribune de Genève, a daily newspaper founded on 1 February 1879 by James T. Bates, with a readership of about 187,000.
Le Courrier, founded in 1868, was originally supported by the Roman Catholic Church, but has been completely independent since 1996. Mainly focused on Geneva, Le Courrier is trying to expand into other cantons in Romandy. Both Le Temps (headquartered in Geneva) and Le Matin are widely read in Geneva, but both actually cover the whole of Romandy.
Geneva is covered by the various French language radio networks of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, in particular the Radio Suisse Romande. While these networks cover the whole of Romandy, special programs related to Geneva are sometimes broadcast on some of the local frequencies in the case of special events such as elections. Other local station broadcast from the city, including RadioLac (FM 91.8 MHz), Radio Cité (Non-commercial radio, FM 92.2 MHz), OneFM (FM 107.0 MHz, also broadcast in Vaud), and World Radio Geneva (FM 88.4 MHz), Switzerland's only English-language radio station.
The main television channel covering Geneva is the Télévision Suisse Romande; while its headquarters are in Geneva, the programmes cover the whole of French-speaking Switzerland. Léman Bleu is a local TV channel, founded in 1996 and distributed by cable. Because Geneva is nearly surrounded by France, many French television and radio channels can be picked up in Geneva.
Theatre
Most theatre in Geneva is in French, however there are several companies that stage regular English productions.
Cinema
Movie going is a favorite activity in Geneva and there are plenty of theaters throughout the city. Most movies are dubbed into French. Because of the number of English speakers in the city movies may also be subtitled.
Restaurants
In has over 1,000 restaurants, so it is the undisputed capital of cuisine in Switzerland. However eating out can be expensive, and many people drive the few kilometres over the border into France where prices are lower.
Since 1818, a particular chestnut tree is used as the official "herald of the spring" in Geneva. The "sautier" (secretary of the Parliament of the Canton of Geneva) observes the tree and notes the day of arrival of the first bud. While this event has no practical impact, the sautier issues a formal press release and the local newspaper will usually mention the news. In 2007, the first bud appeared on 2 March.
Geneva celebrates Jeune genevois on the first Thursday following a Sunday in September. By local tradition, this commemorates when the news of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots reached Geneva. The Genevois (people of Geneva) joke that the federal equivalent holiday, "Jeune fédéral", is celebrated two weeks later on account of the rest of the country being a bit slow on the uptake.
Genevans also traditionally celebrate the failure of a Savoyard attempt to invade the city in 1602. The celebration, which takes place in December, is called L'Escalade, and includes a parade in the Old Town, a marathon, and numerous costume parties across the city. Inhabitants generally eat vegetable stew to commemorate a fictional character called Mère Royaume who is said to have thrown boiling hot soup on the Duke of Savoy's men when they were climbing the walls of the city during the night (hence the name L'Escalade, which means "the climb" in French). Traditionally, children are encouraged to knock on people's doors and sing songs in old Genevan, while teenagers generally throw eggs and flour at each other. Another tradition is to cross a pot made of chocolate filled with marzepan vegetables while saying "and so perished the enemies of the Republic".
The main sport team in Geneva is Servette FC, a football club founded in 1890 and named after a borough on the right bank of the Rhône River. Servette was the only club to have remained in the top league in Switzerland since its creation in the 1930s; however, in 2005, management problems caused the bankruptcy of the club's parent company, causing the club to be demoted two divisions lower. It is now playing in second division. Geneva is also home of the Genève-Servette Hockey Club, who play in the Swiss Nationalliga A.
The city of Geneva is divided into 8 "quartiers" or districts, often made up of several conglomerated neighborhoods. On the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) these include Jonction, Centre / Plainpalais / Acacias, Eaux-Vives and Champel while the Right Bank includes Saint-Jean / Charmilles, Servette / Petit-Saconnex, Grottes / Saint-Gervaise and Paquis / Nations.
As of 2005, the population of the Commune (city) of Geneva was 185,028, while 441,000 people lived in the Canton of Geneva; around 960,000 people live in the Geneva urban community, which extends into Vaud Canton and neighbouring France.
The population of the Canton is split between 148,500 people originally from Geneva (33.7%), 122,400 Swiss from other cantons (27.6%) and 170,500 foreigners (38.7%), from 180 different countries. Including people holding multiple citizenship, 54.4% of people living in Geneva hold a foreign passport.
While Geneva is usually considered a Protestant city, there are now more Roman Catholics (39.5%) than Protestants (17.4%) living in the Canton. 22% of the inhabitants claim not to be religious, the rest being shared between Islam (4.4%), Judaism (1.1%), other religions and people who did not respond.
Geneva's economy is mainly services oriented. The city has an important and old finance sector, which is specialized in private banking (managing assets of about 1 trillion USD) and financing of international trade. It is also an important centre of commodity trade.
Geneva hosts the international headquarters of companies like JT International (JTI), Mediterranean Shipping Company, Serono, SITA, Société Générale de Surveillance and STMicroelectronics. Many other multinational companies like Caterpillar, DuPont, Electronic Arts, Hewlett-Packard, INVISTA, Procter & Gamble and Sun Microsystems have their European headquarters in the city too.
There is a long tradition of watchmaking (Baume et Mercier, Chopard, Franck Muller, Patek Philippe, Rolex, Raymond Weil, Omega, etc.). Two major international producers of flavours and fragrances, Firmenich and Givaudan, have their headquarters and main production facilities in Geneva.
Many people also work in the numerous offices of international organizations in Geneva (about 24,000 in 2001).