Swiss glaciers have lost over 5% of their ice volume in 2026 due to heatwaves and low winter snowfall.

Switzerland has lost almost one-fifth of its ice in just five years, in a dramatic reshaping of the Alpine country whose big white glaciers have been reduced to moonlike rock deserts, scientists say. Swiss glaciers shrank by 5.5% in the first eight months of 2026, according to an annual monitoring report, after a summer of scorching heatwaves that followed a winter with little snow. The reduction in ice volume falls just shy of the record set in 2022 and brings the total loss of glacier ice since 2021 to 19.4%. What we are seeing now is a complete explosion of these melt rates, leading to the disintegration of glaciers. They’re really just falling apart. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/01/switzerland-glacier-loss-fossil-fuel-pollution-europe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Swiss glaciers lose over 5% of ice volume in 2026 as heat waves, low winter snow accelerate thaw https://apnews.com/article/switzerland-glacier-melt-glamos-e847da14ad64ce6a3f188c05636e4b73