Swiss Glaciers Lose over 5% of Ice Volume in 2026 as Heat Waves, Low Winter Snow Accelerate Thaw
- On Thursday, the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation reported that Swiss glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice volume in 2026, driven by a record-breaking European heatwave.
- A combination of record summer temperatures and insufficient winter snow drove the "enormous" melting, according to GLAMOS director Matthias Huss. The loss remains slightly below the 2022 record of 6% due to more winter snow cover.
- Scientists estimate Swiss glaciers lost around 2.2 trillion liters of water between July and September alone. Switzerland's largest glacier, Aletsch Glacier, suffered its biggest-ever melt this year, while Glacier de Tsanfleuron lost more than four meters of thickness.
- Known as Europe's "water tower," Swiss glaciers feed major rivers including the Rhine and Danube, but accelerated melt threatens to disrupt hydropower production and agricultural water supplies.
- Huss warned that Alpine glaciers have no chance of long-term survival under current conditions, with warming entirely driven by human emissions. "Now we are in this new world, in this future, where glaciers are just melting away," he said.
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232 Articles
Swiss glaciers lose over 5% of ice volume in 2026
Glaciers in Switzerland lost 5.5 per cent of their ice volume this year, the second-biggest percentage drop on record. It's part of a trend that could have big impacts in a country reliant on hydropower and which acts as the 'water tower of Europe,' feeding its major rivers.
Switzerland lost almost 20% of its glaciers in just five years, in a rapid transformation of the Alpine landscape that scientists attribute to the increase in temperatures, showed an annual monitoring survey, carried out through a collaboration between the Swiss Ice Cream Monitoring Network and the Swiss Cryosphere Observation Commission. Also read: Cities in southern Europe are more exposed to the effects of the climate crisis, says Lancet Sout…
An alert study on the consequences of global warming in the Swiss Alps, where some glaciers could disappear faster than expected.
The figure gives the measure of acceleration: Swiss glaciers have just experienced their second worst annual balance after 2022. In five years, they have lost almost 20% of their volume, after a summer
At This Rate, Alps' Glaciers Will All Disappear
Switzerland's glaciers aren't just shrinking; they're vanishing at a pace that has stunned the people measuring it. A new report from Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) finds the country has lost about a fifth of its glacier ice since 2021, with 2026 bringing some of the steepest drops ever recorded...
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