Swiss glaciers lose more than 5% of ice after record heatwave, finds report

Swiss glaciers have suffered one of their worst years of ice loss on record, losing more than 5% of their ice volume in 2026 after a record-breaking European heatwave and an unusually snow-poor winter accelerated melting.

According to a new report by the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences on Thursday, Swiss glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice volume in 2026. The decline marks the second-largest annual melt ever recorded and highlights the accelerating pace of glacier retreat as extreme melt years become routine.

"The glaciers this year have lost enormous quantities of ice," said GLAMOS chief Matthias Huss, describing 2026 as "a catastrophic year."

Between 2022 and 2026, the melt rate at Switzerland's glaciers was "more than twice as high as in any previously monitored five-year period," the report said, noting an ice volume loss of almost 20% since 2021, which threatens future water supplies and raises questions about the long-term survival of Europe's ice fields.

"Now we are in this new ​world, in this future, where glaciers are just melting away," said Huss.

The report comes after a summer where the months of June, July and August were each the hottest ever recorded in Switzerland since measurements began in 1864, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology.

This year, the protective snow cover on the glaciers had already partially disappeared during the June heatwaves, and had completely disappeared by September, even at high altitudes, GLAMOS said.

"Alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving in the long term under such conditions," GLAMOS said in a statement.

At the Scex Rouge glacier, located at an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters, Huss observed severe ice loss in despair.

"This is a glacier that isn't surviving," he said. "There will be probably no ice in 10 or maybe 15 years."

'A really worrying situation'

"We are seeing extreme years almost every year now and this is really a worrying situation," Huss said.

Still, the rate of ice loss has not yet quite reached the record highs of 2022, when dust clouds from North Africa settled on the snow and accelerated melting, Huss said.

Switzerland's largest glacier, Aletsch Glacier, suffered its biggest-ever melt this year, while Glacier de Tsanfleuron lost more than 4 meters of average thickness. Huss said this would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

In total, the scientists estimate Swiss glaciers lost around 2.2 trillion liters of water between July and September alone, equivalent to more than four times the annual drinking water consumption of Swiss households.

The additional melt has a temporary benefit, helping to ease summer water shortages. But as ice-covered areas shrink and glaciers become smaller, this benefit is decreasing, Huss said.

"It's not that we're surprised because we know how fast the glaciers are melting, but to see the colors of the mountains where there is no snow left, there are just these rocks," Huss said. "It makes me sad."

(With input from agencies)