Swiss Glaciers Hit Second-Earliest 'Loss Day' on Record
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- Glamos (Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland) said the snow and ice accumulated last winter will have fully melted by Monday, marking the second-earliest "glacier loss day" on record — only 2022, when it arrived on June 26, was earlier.
- Matthias Huss, Glamos network chief, reported one metre of vertical ice melted at the Rhone Glacier in just 10 days, calling current melt rates "enormous ablation" and noting glaciers are "three months too early compared to a healthy state."
- Swiss glaciers have lost 38% of their volume between 2000 and 2024, with 1,200 glaciers disappearing over the past 50 years and only 1,300 remaining — those lost were "small glaciers" but "still relevant in peripheral regions of the Alps."
- 2026 snow accumulation was 25% below the 2010–2020 average, and May's warm temperatures caused the snowpack to vanish earlier than usual, compounding the heatwave's impact alongside Sahara dust that arrived in March.
- Multiple Swiss weather stations registered new all-time temperature records during the heatwave, with Huss saying continued extreme temperatures are "just very bad for the glaciers" regardless of whether they hit 35°C or 40°C.
- Alpine glaciers feed the Rhine and Rhone rivers — two of Europe's major waterways — making the ice loss a water-security issue well beyond Switzerland's borders.
Why it matters: Switzerland has already lost 38% of its glacier volume since 2000 and 1,200 glaciers in 50 years. Huss projects only "little remnants of ice" will remain by 2100 if warming continues — and because Alpine glaciers feed the Rhine and Rhone, two of Europe's major rivers, this is not just a Swiss problem but a continental water-supply crisis unfolding in real time.
