Swiss Glaciers Lose over 5% of Ice Volume in 2026 as Heat Waves, Low Winter Snow Accelerate Thaw
Heat waves and low winter snowfall drove the second-largest percentage loss on record, scientists said, as several major glaciers posted record retreat.
- 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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Within five years, almost one fifth of the mass is gone, the hottest summer since 1864: the Swiss glaciers melt at a speed that researchers call unprecedented. For some, their end is foreseeable.
Glacier researchers speak of a "catastrophic year". Under the prevailing conditions, the Alpine glaciers would not have a chance to survive in the long term.
Glaciers in Switzerland lost around five percent of their ice masses this year. The snow cover was melted due to the heat in June.
'Catastrophic': Swiss glaciers lose fifth of mass in five years
Swiss glaciers saw 5.5 percent of their volume melt away this year, the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) network found in a new study, published after a record hot summer preceded by a winter with little snowfall. "The glaciers this year have lost enormous quantities of ice," said GLAMOS chief Matthias Huss, describing 2026 as "a catastrophic year". Perched on the Scex Rouge glacier, at an altitude of nearly 3,000 metres, he gazed acro…
According to Swiss glaciological surveys, glaciers have lost 20% of their volume since 2021, a rate twice as fast as the previous five years.It is a new "catastrophic" year for Swiss glaciers, which experienced their second worst annual record after 2022, bringing their volume loss to almost 20% in five years, according to a study published on Thursday.According to data from the Swiss Glaciological Surveys Network (Glamos), Swiss glaciers have l…
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