Switzerland’s glaciers have lost a tenth of their volume in the past five years alone, a melting rate unmatched during observations stretching back more than a century, a study of Swiss Academy of Sciences has said. Measurements on 20 Swiss glaciers have shown that melt rates this year have reached record levels, according to the annual study on the state of the glaciers, published by the Cryospheric Commission at the Swiss Academy of Sciences.
The study, released amid growing global alarm over climate change, has found that intense heat waves over the summer in Switzerland had dashed hopes that an exceptionally snow-filled winter would limit the glacier melt this year.
The commission said that in April and May, snow cover on the glaciers was between 20 and 40 per cent higher than usual but during two weeks of intense heat at the end of June and again in late July the thick snow layer quickly disappeared and the strong melt continued until early September. That marks a rate of decline never previously observed in the time series extending back for more than a century, it said.