Switzerland’s glaciers are retreating at an accelerating pace, driven by successive winters with insufficient snowfall and record-breaking summer temperatures across Europe. In total, one of the world’s premier alpine destinations has shed nearly one-fifth of its glacial ice in just five years.
A report published Thursday by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS) and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) reveals that Swiss glaciers lost 5.5 percent of their ice volume during the hydrological year ending September 30, 2026, and almost 20 percent since 2021.
What have scientists discovered?
In September, a GLAMOS team surveyed 23 glaciers across Switzerland to record end-of-summer measurements of ice melt and snow accumulation.
At the Scex Rouge glacier in the western Swiss Alps, GLAMOS director Matthias Huss, a lead researcher on the report, told Reuters that a four-meter measuring pole drilled into the ice in July had been exposed by three meters (roughly 10 feet) when the team returned in early September. “Just in August and September of this year, even excluding the heatwaves of June and July, we have lost three metres of ice at an elevation of almost 3,000 metres,” Huss explained. “This clearly indicates that the conditions we experienced this summer are simply inconsistent with the survival of these small glaciers in the Alps.”
Why are glaciers in Switzerland losing ice?
According to the report, the average thickness of individual Swiss glaciers decreased by 2.5 to four meters in 2026. At glacier tongues—narrow extensions projecting into bodies of water—thickness declined by as much as 10 meters in some locations over the summer.
“We can clearly attribute the massive ice loss to warming, and thus to anthropogenic climate change,” Huss told Al Jazeera. “The summer has been the hottest on record in Switzerland. In addition, there was little snow in winter, so the glaciers were poorly protected when the heat arrived.”
Huss noted that while melting has affected all Swiss glaciers relatively equally, the impact is most visible on smaller glaciers, which shrink rapidly and sometimes vanish entirely. Larger glaciers lose enormous volumes of ice but remain substantial features.
The researchers warned that glaciers lost approximately 2.2 trillion liters of water (581 billion gallons) between July and September alone—more than four times the annual drinking water consumption of all Swiss households—raising concerns for future water security.
What does this mean for Switzerland?
Switzerland’s tourism sector, which employs about 4 percent of the national workforce, relies heavily on alpine landscapes and winter sports. “This affects tourism and also how we perceive the mountains—they are no longer white but increasingly grey and black,” Huss said.
Glacial meltwater also underpins the economy by feeding hydropower reservoirs that generate clean energy and sustaining Europe’s major river systems. “We’re not yet seeing the full consequences because glaciers are still present and contribute water when we need it. But that potential is soon being lost,” Huss added.
Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist and associate research professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, echoed these concerns. He emphasized that glaciers act as critical natural reservoirs, releasing water during hot, dry summers when demand peaks. “With climate change, glaciers initially provide more water in summer as they melt rapidly. However, as they shrink, there is less ice to melt, and summer water supply declines. This peak has now been passed for glaciers in the European Alps, meaning we expect progressively less water in the coming years,” he told Al Jazeera.
Zekollari also warned that glacier loss contributes to natural hazards and, because most melted ice reaches the oceans, the consequences will be felt on coastlines worldwide.
Is there a solution?
According to Zekollari, preserving as much glacier ice as possible requires stabilizing global temperatures as quickly as possible. “Projections for the European Alps and Swiss glaciers show that if we rapidly halt emissions, we may still save about one-third of their ice mass. However, under strong warming scenarios, these glaciers are projected to lose more than 90 percent of their volume by 2100,” he said.
The outlook is somewhat less dire globally, as glaciers in some regions are more resilient. “Even globally, future emissions play a decisive role: we could lose about 25 percent of glacier mass by 2100 in a low-warming scenario, or closer to 50 percent with high warming,” Zekollari noted. “Losses beyond 2100 are even larger due to glaciers’ long response times, but future warming remains the determining factor. Every tenth of a degree Celsius matters.”
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