Switzerland lost nearly a fifth of its glacier ice in five years, monitoring report finds

Swiss glaciers have lost 19.4% of their ice volume since 2021, an annual monitoring report found, turning slopes that were covered in ice a generation ago into fields of bare rock.

Ice volume fell 5.5% in the first eight months of 2026 alone, after scorching summer heat waves followed a winter with little snow. The mean thickness of individual glaciers dropped by 2.5 to 4 meters this year, according to the report by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation, Ajit Niranjan reported Oct. 1 in The Guardian.

Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the report's lead author, said scientists increasingly see glaciers collapsing from within as meltwater streams carve caverns beneath the ice. "You have huge holes like cheese in the middle of the ice that have collapsing roofs," Huss said.

Several small glaciers disappeared this year, the scientists said, though a formal count has not been compiled. The Plattalvafirn, also known as the Griess glacier, lost 99% of its area in 20 years.

Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average. The Swiss weather service, MeteoSwiss, said the April-to-September half-year was the hottest and driest since records began in 1864. This year's loss fell just short of the 2022 record partly because less Saharan dust, which darkens snow and speeds melting, settled on the glaciers.

This brief is based on reporting by Ajit Niranjan, published Oct. 1, 2026, in The Guardian. Read the original: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/01/switzerland-glacier-loss-fossil-fuel-pollution-europe