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According to data from the Swiss Ice Survey Network, Swiss glaciers have melted at a rate more than twice that observed during any other five-year period.
It’s another “catastrophic” year for Swiss glaciers, which have experienced their second-worst annual performance after 2022, bringing their volume loss to nearly 20% in five years, according to a study published this Thursday. According to data from the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (Glamos), Swiss
glaciers lost a further 5.5% of their volume this year after experiencing the hottest summer on record and a winter with little snow.
Between 2022 and 2026, Swiss glaciers melted at a rate more than twice that observed during any other five-year period so far, resulting in a loss of almost 20% of their volume since 2021. Their melting is accelerating: 10% of the ice volume disappeared in the 1990s, compared to 27% during the decade 2016-2026, according to measurements taken on about twenty glaciers , extrapolated to all of the nearly 1,300 glacial formations that still exist in Switzerland.
“No chance of long-term survival”
The country’s warming is twice the global average, according to MeteoSwiss. The months of June to August were the hottest ever recorded in Switzerland since measurements began in 1864. They dethroned the record-breaking summer of 2003. “A future summer in a world 3 degrees warmer would be about 3.6°C warmer than the 1991-2020 reference period. During the summer of 2026, the difference was 3.4°C,” states MeteoSwiss, which estimates that “in a world 3 degrees warmer, the summer of 2026 would be average.”
The snow protecting the glaciers had already partially melted in June and had completely disappeared by September, even at altitudes of 3,500 meters. “Under such conditions, Alpine glaciers have no chance of long-term survival,” warns Glamos.
