As thaw accelerates, Swiss glaciers lost 10% of their volume in the last 2 years, experts say

GENEVA – A Swiss Academy of Sciences panel is reporting a dramatic acceleration of glacier soften in the Alpine nation, which has lost 10% of its ice volume in simply two years after prime summer season warmth and occasional snow volumes in wintry weather.

Switzerland — house to the maximum glaciers of any nation in Europe — has noticed 4% of its general glacier volume disappear in 2023, the second-biggest decline in a unmarried yr on best of a 6% drop in 2022, the best thaw since measurements started, the academy’s fee for cryosphere statement mentioned.

Experts at the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center were on the lookout for a imaginable excessive soften this yr amid early caution indicators about the nation’s estimated 1,400 glaciers, a host this is now dwindling.

“The acceleration is dramatic, with as much ice being lost in only two years as was the case between 1960 and 1990,” the academy mentioned. “The two extreme consecutive years have led to glacier tongues collapsing and the disappearance of many smaller glaciers.”

The workforce mentioned the “massive ice loss” stemmed from a winter with very low volumes of snow — which falls on top of glaciers and protects them from exposure to direct sunlight — and high summer temperatures.

All of Switzerland — where the Alps cut a swath through most of the southern and central parts of the country — was affected, though glaciers in the southern and eastern regions melted almost as fast as in 2022’s record thaw.

“Melting of several meters was measured in southern Valais (region) and the Engadin valley at a level above 3,200 meters (10,500 feet), an altitude at which glaciers had until recently preserved their equilibrium,” the workforce mentioned.

The average loss of ice thickness was up to 3 meters (10 feet) in places such as the Gries Glacier in Valais, the Basòdino Glacier in the southern canton, or region, of Ticino, and the Vadret Pers glacier system in eastern Graubunden.

Snow depths measured in the first half of February were generally higher than in the winters of 1964, 1990 or 2007, which were also characterized by low snowfalls, the team said. But snow levels sank to a new record low in the second half of the month of February, reaching only about 30% of the long-term average.

Over half of automated monitoring stations above 2,000 meters that have been in place for at least a quarter-century tallied record-low levels of snow at the time.

After that, an “extremely warm June” caused snow to melt 2 to 4 weeks earlier than usual, and mid-summer snowfalls melted very quickly, the team said.

Swiss meteorologists reported in August that the zero-degree Celsius level — or the altitude the place water freezes — had risen to its best stage ever recorded, at just about 5,300 meters (17,400 ft), this means that that every one the Swiss Alpine peaks confronted temperatures above freezing.