Swiss glaciers lose 5.5% of ice in 2026

Switzerland’s glaciers lost an estimated 5.5% of their remaining ice in 2026, the country’s glacier monitoring network reported, as intense summer heat accelerated a decline that threatens future water supplies and mountain stability.

The loss was close to the record 6% measured in 2022. Until recently, Alpine glaciologists considered a 2% loss in a single year extreme, the BBC reported. “It’s really just disastrous,” said Matthias Huss, director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland, also known as GLAMOS.

The glaciers entered summer with less snow than usual after a mild winter, according to the BBC. Early heatwaves in May and June stripped away much of that cover, exposing darker ice that absorbs more of the sun’s energy and melts faster. NPR reported that slightly more winter snow covered the glaciers than in 2022, helping keep this year’s national loss below the record, even as some individual glaciers, including the Rhône and Aletsch, suffered record losses.

Researchers found no snow remaining at the end of summer at some measurement sites as high as 3,500 metres. “At some glaciers we’ve seen four metres of ice loss at the highest point, where they should be covered by several metres of winter snow at this time of the year,” Huss told the BBC. Snow that survives summer can eventually compact into ice; without it, glaciers cannot replace ice lost farther downhill.

The melting provided water when it was needed. Scientists estimated that Swiss glaciers released 2.2 trillion litres between July and September, easing shortages during hot, dry conditions, according to the BBC. But that water came from ice stored over decades or centuries, Huss warned, leaving less for future heatwaves.

Glacier runoff supports irrigation, hydropower and river transport. The Rhine reached record lows in places this summer, disrupting navigation and raising transport costs, the BBC reported. NPR reported that low river levels halted freight transport on the Rhine and Danube and forced temporary shutdowns of nuclear power stations that use river water for cooling.

Retreating ice can also leave mountain slopes less stable, especially as frozen ground thaws. NPR reported that the Swiss village of Blatten was destroyed last year when a glacier and mountainside collapsed, burying 300 homes. Residents had been evacuated and were still living in temporary accommodation a year later.

Huss cautioned against attributing any single mountain disaster solely to warming. “Combined with this heat, with the disappearance of the ice, with the warming of permafrost, climate change can be a triggering factor,” he told NPR.

Some smaller Swiss glaciers have already disappeared. NPR reported that 1,200 have vanished over the past 50 years and that the monitoring network projects all of Switzerland’s glaciers could disappear by the end of the century if warming continues at its current rate. Huss said sharp cuts to carbon emissions could still preserve substantial glacier ice elsewhere, particularly in the Himalayas and polar regions.