{"id":97511,"date":"2026-07-05T02:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T02:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/97511\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T02:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T02:29:21","slug":"swiss-glaciers-rapidly-lose-protective-snow-in-punishing-european-heat-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/97511\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss glaciers rapidly lose protective snow in punishing European heat wave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published on Jul. 4, 2026, 3:02 PM<\/p>\n

Researchers say that on June 29, the Rhone Glacier in southern Switzerland reached so-called “Glacier Loss Day” \u2014 the moment when snow accumulated over winter has melted away and glaciers begin shedding the ice below.<\/p>\n

By Cecile Mantovani<\/p>\n

OBERGOMS, Switzerland, July 3 (Reuters) – Snow on Swiss glaciers disappeared weeks earlier than usual this summer under the glare of a European heatwave<\/a>, pitching the Alps into another year of heavy ice loss, scientists say.<\/p>\n

Researchers say that on June 29, the Rhone Glacier in southern Switzerland reached so-called “Glacier Loss Day” \u2014 the moment when snow accumulated over winter has melted away and glaciers begin shedding the ice below.<\/p>\n

Matthias Huss, director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland, said three months still remained this year for ice to melt that has taken decades or even centuries to build up.<\/p>\n

\"EUROPE-WEATHER-SWISS-GLACIERS\/REUTERS\/Pierre<\/p>\n

\nA drone view shows ice details on the Rhone glacier, amid climate change in Obergoms, Switzerland, July 2, 2026. REUTERS\/Pierre Albouy<\/p>\n

“This is really a worrying situation,” he said.<\/p>\n

HEATWAVES AND SCANT SNOWFALL BATTER GLACIERS<\/p>\n

This year, two heatwaves<\/a> that followed low winter snowfall helped accelerate “Glacier Loss Day” to its second-earliest date on record. In 2022, it occurred three days earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on Jul. 4, 2026, 3:02 PM Researchers say that on June 29, the Rhone Glacier in southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[33409,39552,4672,17,18827],"class_list":["post-97511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-heat","tag-heat-wave","tag-ice","tag-switzerland","tag-temperatures"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116865018747226255","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}