Swiss Glaciers Lost More Than 5% of Their Ice in One Year
Swiss glaciers lost more than 5% of their remaining ice over the 2026 melt season, the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS) and the Swiss Academy of Sciences' Commission for Cryosphere Observation reported Oct. 1. They place the year just behind 2022, the worst in their records.
According to the commission's release, the meltwater is for now still easing Switzerland's summer water shortages, but that effect is already diminishing as the ice-covered area shrinks. The organizations also warn Alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving in the long term under conditions like these.
Mean thickness fell by 2.5 to 4 meters across individual glaciers over the summer. Almost 20% of the country's ice volume has now gone in the past five years alone. Several small glaciers have vanished altogether, among them the Bella Tola Glacier and the Griessfiren/Plattalvafirn.
Snow depths at every elevation ran far below the long-term average through the winter, which the release attributes mainly to low precipitation. Every month from May to September was dry and brought at least one heatwave, and the protective snow cover on the glaciers was partly gone by the June heat. The freezing level stood above 4,000 meters on 76 days, a record.
The year did not quite match 2022 despite higher temperatures: the release notes that many glaciers carried slightly more snow than they did then, and less Saharan dust settled on the surface, so more sunlight was reflected away. Four glaciers were exceptions. GLAMOS records the Allalin, Clariden, Aletsch and Rhône as having melted more in this year than in any year it has measured.
