A group of experts from the Swiss Academy of Sciences reports a sharp acceleration in the melting of mountain glaciers. In 2022, glacier volumes declined by 6 percent, followed by a 4 percent drop in 2023, according to a report from the GLAMOS Glacier Monitoring Center in Switzerland.
Scientists describe the ongoing thinning of snow cover as occurring at a catastrophic pace. The study notes that in just two years the same volume of ice vanished that was lost between 1960 and 1990, and two years of extreme melt have driven the collapse of large glacier tongues along with the disappearance of smaller ice accumulations.
The average loss of ice thickness in the Swiss Alps ranged from two to three meters, varying by region. GLAMOS president Matthias Huss emphasizes that Switzerland has already lost around a thousand small glaciers and is now beginning to lose larger, more significant ice bodies.
Researchers attribute the pronounced ice loss to milder winters and hot summers. More than half of the automatic monitoring stations above 2,000 meters, in operation for at least a quarter century, recorded record low snow levels for this time of year. In spring 2023, snow began to melt two to four weeks earlier than normal due to an exceptionally warm June.
Scientists also observed temperatures below freezing at a record altitude of roughly 5,300 meters in August 2023, indicating that even the highest Swiss peaks stayed above freezing. The broader trend suggests that a 1.5°C rise in global temperatures could drive widespread glacier retreat on a planetary scale, affecting ecosystems and water resources in the years ahead.