SWITZERLAND — Swiss glaciers are projected to lose all snow and ice accumulated during the winter season by Monday, marking the second-earliest recorded "glacier loss day." This event coincides with a heatwave across Europe.

"We're just seeing enormous ablation, ice melt rates and snow melt rates all over the Alps," said Matthias Huss, chief of the Glamos network. He stated, "We are three months too early compared to a healthy state." Huss said he had just returned from the Rhone Glacier and that in the 10 days since his previous visit there was one metre of ice melted in the vertical direction.

Huss said the state of the glaciers was due to a combination of factors including less snowfall and the arrival of dust from the Sahara desert in March. He noted this year had seen 25% less snow replenishing the surface of the glaciers compared with the 2010-20 figures. "The more days that are added that are very high temperatures, not even mattering whether it's 35C or 40C, this is just very bad for the glaciers," Huss said.

Since 2000, the average glacier loss day has occurred in mid-August. The only time this tipping point arrived earlier than the current date was on June 26, 2022. Between now and October, any additional melting will contribute to a reduction in the size of glaciers within the Swiss Alps. Multiple Swiss weather stations have recorded new all-time high temperatures.

Glaciers in the Swiss Alps began to recede approximately 170 years ago. From 2000 to 2024, the volume of Swiss glaciers decreased by 38%. Huss said Switzerland had already lost 1,200 glaciers in the past 50 years, leaving 1,300 remaining. "Those lost were small glaciers, but they were still relevant in peripheral regions of the Alps," he said. "If warming continues as it did over the last decades, by 2100 we will only be left with some little remnants of ice."