Switzerland’s glaciers experienced above-average melting in 2024, as a sweltering summer thawed through even the heaviest snowfall, according to a report by the glacier monitoring body GLAMOS. While glaciologists had initially hoped that the heavy winter and spring snowfall would slow the rate of glacier loss, the heat of the summer quickly erased those gains, causing significant ice melt across the Swiss Alps.
Despite the ideal winter and spring conditions, Swiss glaciers lost around 2.5% of their volume this year, a rate above the decade’s average. Glaciologists are now concerned about the future of these natural landmarks, which are crucial to the country’s ecosystem and economy.
Matthias Huss, Director of GLAMOS, voiced concerns about the alarming trend. “It is worrying to me that despite the perfect year we had for glaciers, with the snow-rich winter and the rather cool and rainy spring, it was still not enough,” he said. Huss added that if the current trend of hot summers continues, Swiss glaciers could face catastrophic losses shortly.
Average temperatures at Jungfraujoch, located 3,571 meters above sea level, stayed a few degrees above freezing this August, leading to record ice losses at the Aletsch Glacier and other areas in the Swiss Alps.
One of the factors contributing to the accelerated ice loss was dust from the Sahara Desert. This dust, carried by winds and deposited on the glaciers, gave the ice sheets a brown or rosy hue, reducing their ability to reflect sunlight. This phenomenon increased the glaciers’ heat absorption, leading to faster melting.
Huss shared images on social media showing muddy streams cutting through thinning ice sheets, with rocks and gravel increasingly exposed as the glaciers retreat. “There is a relation you build up with the site, with the ice, and it hurts a bit to see how the rocks are simply taking over,” he told Reuters while measuring ice on the Pers Glacier in eastern Switzerland.
Switzerland is home to more than half of the glaciers in the Alps, where temperatures are rising at nearly twice the global average due to climate change. If greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, experts predict the Alps’ glaciers could lose over 80% of their current mass by 2100.
In response to the melting ice, the Swiss government recently revised its border with Italy, as the retreat of icy ridges has altered the natural watersheds that define the boundary. Switzerland’s glaciers, which are key indicators of climate change, face a bleak future unless immediate actions are taken to address rising global temperatures.
