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The cryosphere observation team at the Swiss Academy of Sciences
reported that high temperatures in July and August, combined
with the heat-absorbing impact of reddish-yellow dust blown
northward from the Sahara Desert onto Swiss glaciers, led to a
loss of 2.5% of their volume this year.
The shrinkage came despite “extremely favorable” conditions
through June, the academy said, thanks to 30% more snowfall in
the preceding winter compared to average levels, meaning that
the glaciers had an extra layer of protective covering of snow —
before temperatures rose.
“August saw the greatest loss of ice recorded since measurements
began,” the academy said in a statement summarizing the
findings.
“The retreat of the glacier tongues and their disintegration
continue unabated as a result of climate change,” it said,
adding that the 2.5% loss of volume was higher than the average
levels over the last decade.
Experts at the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland network, known
as GLAMOS, said that more than half of the glaciers it monitored
completely lost their snow coverage throughout the summer.
Several topmost measurement points on glaciers, such as Plaine
Morte and Gries in the south and Silvretta in the east, recorded
melt rates of a meter or more, the network said in a report for
the Swiss Academy of Sciences.
GLAMOS cited three factors: “very high” average air temperatures
in July and August; good weather in those months in which there
was no fresh snow; and southwesterly winds in the winter and
spring that dumped the Saharan dust onto the Alps, causing a
warming effect on the ice.
Switzerland is home to the most glaciers of any country in
Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear last
year. That was the second-biggest decline in a single year on
top of a 6% drop in 2022.
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