Since 2021, Switzerland has lost 19.4% of its glacier volume, and another 5.5% in the first eight months of 2026. Matthias Huss, head of the Swiss glacier monitoring network GLAMOS, said that glaciers can no longer support the water balance the way they did a few years ago, and that this will affect water supply over time.
As The Insider reports, the annual report of the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network GLAMOS and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation says the losses accelerated after a low-snow winter and an exhausting hot summer. MeteoSwiss, the Swiss meteorological service, notes that the period from April to September 2026 was the hottest and driest on record since observations began in 1864.
Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and the lead author of the report, said that by 2026 the average thickness of some glaciers had decreased by 2.5–4 meters. He also recalled that the Plattalvafirn glacier, also known as Gries, has lost 99% of its area over the past 20 years, and that he was already observing it during his doctoral studies.
According to Huss, rapid melting is changing the appearance of the mountains and affecting tourism. He explained that glacier meltwater is important for downstream water supply during hot and dry periods, as well as for replenishing hydropower reservoirs.
Huss noted that unprecedented ice losses over the past five years temporarily supported river flow, but this water had been stored as ice for decades and centuries and is now lost forever. According to him, this could make water shortages more noticeable during future heat waves. The British newspaper The Guardian adds that temperatures in Europe are rising twice as fast as the global average, with the Alpine region being hit hardest; the publication links this to emissions from burning fossil fuels.
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