Swiss glaciers are poised to record their second-worst or potentially worst year for ice loss in 2026, following a summer of intense heat and low winter snowfall, according to the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) service.
Latest data up to September 21, 2026, indicates an acceleration in the melting rate of Switzerland’s glaciers. Matthias Huss, head of GLAMOS and a professor of glaciology at the Federal Polytechnic Institute ETHZ (ETH Zurich), noted in June 2026 that all winter snow and ice had melted from Swiss glaciers, marking the second-earliest “glacier decay day” since 2022. He also reported a loss of six metres (20 feet) of ice from the Aletsch Glacier, the largest in the Alps, since the beginning of the 2026 summer.
Experts attribute the accelerated melting to human-induced climate change, noting that Switzerland is warming at twice the global average. “The warming that we are experiencing now can be attributed 100% to anthropogenic climate change. It’s as simple as that,” Huss said, adding that without human emissions, there would be no warming.
This year’s anticipated decline follows a significant loss in 2023, when Swiss glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice volume, the second-largest percentage decline on record, according to GLAMOS and the Swiss Academy of Sciences. This resulted in the loss of 2.2 trillion litres (581 billion gallons) of water between July and September 2023, equivalent to about four times the country’s annual water consumption. Switzerland, which generates more than half of its electricity from hydropower, is considered Europe’s water tower, supplying major rivers like the Danube, Po, Rhine, and Rhone.
In 2022, Switzerland experienced its largest glacier retreat on record, exacerbated by summer heat, low winter snowfall, and an unusual layer of reddish dust from the Sahara that caused glaciers to absorb more heat. Over the past five years alone, Switzerland has lost nearly one-fifth of its total glacier ice volume. From 2015 to 2025, glaciers lost 24% of their total volume, and since the early 1970s, over 1,100 Swiss glaciers have completely disappeared.
The accelerated melting in the Alps is part of a wider global trend, with experts suggesting global warming contributed to destabilising a Himalayan slope that collapsed in August 2026, triggering catastrophic flooding in Nepal. Floods in the Bhotekoshi river following a landslide in the Langtang Lirung mountain range on August 26, 2026, knocked 430 megawatts of electricity generation offline. Further floods and landslides on September 25, 2026, caused an additional 190 megawatts to go offline, bringing the total to 620 megawatts disconnected from the national grid. Prime Minister Balen Shah and Chief of Army Staff Prabhu Ram Sigdel discussed security and flood relief efforts. Meanwhile, the National Assembly, the upper house of parliament, formed a disaster study committee.
Scientists warn that without further action to control global temperature increases, Switzerland’s glaciers could almost entirely disappear by the end of this century. GLAMOS is preparing to release its annual glacier assessment for 2026 this autumn, with Huss expecting the ice loss situation to worsen in the coming year. The exact percentage of ice lost by Swiss glaciers in 2026 is yet to be officially announced. Furthermore, investigations are ongoing to fully confirm whether glacial lake outbursts or landslides were the primary cause of the devastating floods in Nepal in August and September 2026.
