On December 26, 1999, Switzerland was struck by the most severe storm in the country’s history. An extensive dataset from the Canton Berne allowed us to test the hypothesis that in regions where windthrown wood was cleared a) the intensity of the first Ips typographus-infestation on standing trees after the storm depends on the distance from windthrow areas and b) the intensity of the first infestation depends on the temperature differential at different altitudes. Both hypotheses have been verified, however our results suggest that the first infestation of standing trees after the storm is not caused by the emigration of bark beetles from adjacent windthrow areas.