{"id":643268,"date":"2026-10-03T03:58:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T03:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643268\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T03:58:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T03:58:29","slug":"swiss-glaciers-lose-more-than-5-of-ice-after-record-heatwave-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/643268\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss glaciers lose more than 5% of ice after record heatwave \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/switzerland\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/switzerland\/\">Swiss<\/a> glaciers are shrinking rapidly after suffering one of their worst years of ice loss during a record-breaking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/climate-change\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/climate-change\/\">European heatwave<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Switzerland\u2019s glaciers lost \u200bmore than 5 per cent of their ice in 2026, a report by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (Glamos) and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences showed on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The findings underscore the accelerating pace \u200bof glacier retreat as extreme \u201cmelt years\u201d become routine. Over the past five years, Swiss glaciers have shed almost a \u2060fifth of their ice, the report showed, threatening future water supplies and raising questions about \u200cthe \u200clong-term \u200bsurvival of Europe\u2019s ice fields.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cNow we are in this new world, in this future, where glaciers are just melting away,\u201d Matthias Huss, director \u2060of Glamos, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A combination of a \u200bwinter with too little snow and record temperatures in \u200bthe summer led to what Huss called \u201cenormous\u201d melting this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe are seeing \u200cextreme years almost every year now and \u200bthis is really a worrying situation,\u201d Huss said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The rate of ice loss has \u2060not yet quite reached the record highs \u2060of 2022, when \u200bdust clouds from North Africa settled on the snow and accelerated melting, Huss said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Switzerland\u2019s largest glacier, Aletsch Glacier, suffered its biggest-ever melt this year, while Glacier de Tsanfleuron lost more than four meters of average thickness. Huss said this would have been unthinkable a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In total, the scientists estimate Swiss glaciers lost about 2.2 trillion litres of water between July and September alone, equivalent to more than four \u200ctimes the annual drinking \u2060water consumption of Swiss households.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">That has one positive side effect: glacier melt contributes to easing summer water shortages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">But, as ice-covered areas shrink and glaciers become smaller, this benefit \u200cis decreasing, Huss said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s not that we\u2019re surprised because we know how fast the glaciers are melting, but \u200bto see the colours of the mountains where there is no \u200bsnow left, there are just these rocks,\u201d Huss said. \u201cIt makes me sad.\u201d \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swiss glaciers are shrinking rapidly after suffering one of their worst years of ice loss during a record-breaking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2885,246,61,60,82,301],"class_list":["post-643268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}