Swiss Glaciers Reach Tipping Point
7th July 2025
Last modified on July 10th, 2025
All the snow and ice accumulated by Swiss glaciers last winter has now melted and they are now shrinking. It is a similar picture across the Alps.
According to estimates from the Glamos monitoring service this is the only the second time ‘Glacier Loss Day’ has been recorded so early.
In 2022 it came on June 26th, this year it was July 4th.
Normally the date is in mid-August.
The mass that Swiss glaciers will lose by the end of the melting period now depends on the weather conditions over the next three months.
Matthias Huss is a glaciologist and the head of Glamos.
A 26-day period of exceptionally high temperatures will end tomorrow, 4 degrees above normal.
Swiss #glaciers have lost an enormous amount of water during this time: it is equivalent to 🇨🇭’s total annual drinking water use, and more than twice the average of the last years… pic.twitter.com/4VzchSW5Iz— Matthias Huss (@matthias_huss) July 5, 2025
It has been a hot summer so far across the Alps.
Mont Fort glacier, Switzerland. Image © PlanetSKI
Swiss glaciers started the summer with the snowpack down 13% on the annual average.
The volume of Swiss glaciers shrank by 38% between 2000 and 2024.
The assessments by Glamos are made using twelve reference glaciers.
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