Like pulling the plug of a bathtub: an incredible mass of #glacier ice disappearing at Griesgletscher (🇨🇭/🇮🇹) in one century. It felt emotional to visit the exact same spot @swisstopo cartographers chose in 1919. The view was so different. Simply unbelievable!! @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Remember the catastrophic rock-ice avalanche of Blatten 🇨🇭 this May? This incredible image comparison shows like nothing else the darkening of mountain peaks. And along with the disappearance of snow, ice and permafrost, new hazards come along @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

110 years ago, glaciologists climbed up to Claridenfirn 🇨🇭 to start the longest measurements of #glacier mass balance worldwide. Yesterday morning, the scene looked so different! Still beautiful, but the ice got slim... Almost sentimental to see another crazy year up there

One more year: Ice loss at Konkordiaplatz on Aletsch #Glacier is just... wow 😲 Minus 4.6 metres of ice. Will there ever be a call: "Make Aletsch Great Again"? It would be about time

We discontinued mass balance measurements on the small St. Annafirn in 2023 as the #glacier was on the verge of disappearing and rockfall hazard became too high. A good decision: a massive landslide occurred this Sunday covering the entire glacier 👇 www.ur.ch/mmdirektione....

This #glacier encountered during our late-summer fieldwork looks like a wounded animal. Deep scars in its surface are indicative of the processes of internal decay. This is widespread now in the Alps. A sad sight for a glaciologist...

It's the time of the year GLAMOS measurements on around 20 Swiss #glaciers start. We've been on Rhone, Allalin, Corvatsch, ... these days. Not all as shiny white as here! Major losses also in 2025. Stay posted for the press release via @scnat.ch on 1 Oct @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Did you know that already more than 1000 glaciers have disappeared in Switzerland over the last 50 years as a consequence of human-caused climate change? One of those is Pizolgletscher which I visited today. Always a saddening yet impressive sight...

A hole in the #glacier ice... Nature is just incredible. We were at Glacier de la Plaine Morte today for GLAMOS measurements. Bad situation, as expected. Major mass loss has already occurred and melting continues at crazy rates. Wow, let's see where this is ending...

Getting used to this image: #glaciers almost completely naked - unprotected by the white snow - in August... While July was good for glaciers after record-melt in June, the new heat wave again results in major ice loss @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Great Aletsch #Glacier - what a beauty 😍 Melting at the glacier terminus is incredible though this year as reported by measurements by @pronaturabl.bsky.social Already over 7️⃣ meters of ice loss since Oct 2024, with considerable melt also in winter.

This is the collapsing terminus of Rhone #glacier yesterday - retreating out of its proglacial lake. Impressive changes going on during the heat wave! We measured almost 3 meters of ice melting over the last 4 weeks... This is 10 cm of ice layer removed every single day!!

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...

The #Glacier Loss Day is reached in Switzerland! From now on all melt that occurs on glaciers until October is unsustainable. This tipping point has only been reached so early in the record-shattering year 2022. Expect big ice loss due to the prolonged melt season and feedback effects

Some cooling within the #glacier ice - this is what is urgently needed these days... On Jungfraujoch, there has been no warmer June since at least 90 years than in 2025! @meteoschweiz.ch Glaciers are in a deplorable state - as if they even need more attention in their UN International Year...

🚨 New paper alert! Glaciers in Western Canada, Switzerland & the conterminous US lost twice as much ice from 2021–2024 compared to the previous decade. Heatwaves + dust & wildfire impurities drove extreme melt. Co-authored by #VAW member @matthias-huss.bsky.social ❄️🌍

In about 4 days from now, we are going to hit the #Glacier Loss Day in Switzerland! All melting from this point onwards till next winter is unsustainable, i.e. is long-term mass loss. This is extremely early in the season! And just a bit behind the record-shattering year 2022...

Snow situation on Konkordiaplatz, Great Aletsch #Glacier, by 29 June 2019-2025. Exchanging white snow with dark bare ice. This is really bad! And there's still up to 100 days to go in the melt season. Will we reach the all-time record of 2022? I hope not...! @jungfraualetsch.bsky.social

One month ago, Birchgletscher collapsed and erased the village of Blatten. A disastrous event that will keep Switzerland busy for a long while... swisstopo images 👇 show the #glacier front began to advance in 2020, indicating a growing instability - a precursor of the event

Hunting the extreme year 2022... Yes, I'm really worried about the current state of Swiss #glaciers! After a dry winter, the scorching heat of the last weeks pushes glaciers towards another black year. Hoping for some cooling but the summer has only just started @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

The tongue of Rhone #Glacier ten days after my last visit. Can you guess how much ice melted away? 1️⃣ meter in terms of thickness! 1️⃣0️⃣ days... And that's just the beginning of the summer season. We know the times are bad for the ice, but still it is hard to accept these numbers!

The beauty of a #glacier at sunrise descending down into the valley. You may not realise that this view is dramatic, and not just gorgeous: Glacier retreat is immense, and there's very little snow this June... Pic taken from Piz Languard on 22 June 2025

Konkordiaplatz on Great Aletschgletscher is now snow-free... A bit later than 2022 but earlier than 2023 (year with second-most highest ice loss). It hurts to see #glaciers entering a summer with massive ice losses again! And no cooling is in sight @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

The last snow on the tongue of Griesgletscher at sunrise. Beautiful, but bad news for the #glacier... The present heat has massively reduced the already limited amount of winter snow, the natural protection of the ice is soon lost.

Let's better visualise the suffering of Swiss #glaciers with an image: Rhone glacier yesterday for first summer measurements and a conversation with @apnews.com The glacier is now far back in the valley, the lake expanding while the ice coverage in the foreground looks ridiculous...

11 June, start into the first heat wave of the summer. And it's definitely not looking good for Swiss #glaciers! Little winter snow, and now the heat is here. 2-4 weeks earlier melt out than usual. Oh no, where are you heading to, 2025? @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

11 June, start into the first heat wave of the summer. And it's definitely not looking good for Swiss #glaciers! Little winter snow, and now the heat is here. 2-4 weeks earlier melt out than usual. Oh no, where are you heading to, 2025? @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Funny scene at our real-time station on Findel #Glacier today: the strong melting has mobilized the little remaining snow on the ice surface into a slush flow that has temporarily buried the camera 😅 The first summer heat 🌊 is here, poor glaciers... @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

We’ve updated the #Birchgletscher factsheet – the 🇨🇭#glacier that collapsed on 28 May. It took just ~40s for the ice-rock avalanche to hit the valley equalling an average speed of ~200 km/h. New data on volumes & timing now included: polybox.ethz.ch/index.php/s/... #Blatten ❤️

[1/2] We’ve released a new version of the factsheet on #Birchgletscher -- the Swiss glacier that catastrophically collapsed on 28 May 2025 following heavy debris loading from Kleines Nesthorn -- and some first field impressions that we were able to collect yesterday 🗂 polybox.ethz.ch/index.php/s/...

Every +0.1°C of global warming leads to ~2% more glacier ice loss. Sticking to the #ParisAgreement (+1.5°C) would preserve over half the ice compared to current policies (+2.7°C). This is the result of a new study based, led by Harry Zekollari, Lilian Schuster & several co-authors from our group.

Yesterday's devastating #glacier collapse erasing the Swiss village of Blatten still leaves me speechless... The high mountain areas are adapting to ever increasing temperatures. It's time to wake up! When, if not now? This is not far away but right here... pic: Pomona/A. Amherd

Here is a factsheet on what is currently known about Birchgletscher, the Swiss glacier that catastrophically collapsed on 28 May 2025, following heavy debris loading from Kleines Nesthorn. Our thoughts are with all those most deeply affected. polybox.ethz.ch/index.php/s/...

🚨Not all glacier meltwater makes it to the ocean 🌊 New paper co-authored by VAW Matthias Huss shows ~95% of future glacier runoff will flow to the sea via rivers, while 5% is lost to evaporation or stored on land. High Mountain Asia hold most of what doesn't reach the ocean. doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Summer starting on Swiss #glaciers! Most likely today, the maximal snow accumulation is reached and we're entering the phase of loss. The state of glaciers still lingers below the average although May was rather cool. Summer heat waves will decide about the outcome of 2025.

🚨Paper Alert! A new paper, co-authored by VAW Matthias Huss, shows glaciers worldwide have lost over 9,000 Gt of ice since 1976, raising sea levels by ~25 mm. 🌍 The paper presents a global dataset of annual glacier mass change from 1976–2024. Explore: 📊🧊 doi.org/10.5194/essd...

Again a tough year ahead for Swiss glaciers? ❄️ Winter 2025 snow data from GLAMOS is in: a 13% snow deficit nationwide, but with big regional differences. A sharp contrast to 2024’s +31% surplus, yet even then, #glaciers still lost mass. Full results in the report 👇 doi.glamos.ch/pubs/winterr...

Another winter day on Great Aletsch #Glacier! Windy, cold, fresh powder... For the last time this season we went out for a long day to measure snow depth and serviced the station on Konkordiaplatz. Just incredible to be out in this environment! @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Here we go, summer started! Bare ice has appeared at the first of the GLAMOS real-time stations. The lower 6 km of Great Aletsch #Glacier are thus snow-free. This is early in the season, similar to 2022, but 1 and 3 weeks before 2023 and 2024, respectively. @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Winter #snow measurements on #glaciers for 2025 in the frame of GLAMOS are completed. Read our report on the results 👇 There's a 13% glacier snow deficit Swiss-wide, with strong spatial variability though. Another difficult year for glaciers ahead... doi.glamos.ch/pubs/winterr...

The first Swiss Glacier Bulletin summarising our monitoring activities on #glaciers throughout 🇨🇭 in 2024 has just been released! (GLAMOS) The documents provides an overview about all observed variables and points out exceptional events. Read more here: doi.glamos.ch/pubs/glbulleti…

Glaciologists working on Gries #Glacier We made use of the fantastic weather yesterday to survey winter mass balance on two of the last glaciers in this season. Rather little snow but the precipitation event 2 weeks ago helped a lot in some regions @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

White winter high up in the mountains, green spring down in the valley. I like these times of mixed realities! (Bernese Oberland today)

That was a long break GLAMOS winter measurements due to a period of unstable weather. Today we were finally out again on Rhone #Glacier with a big @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social team. Perfect conditions, efficient working to be back before the showers. Very little snow also here...

Hello from Konkordiaplatz, Great Aletsch #Glacier 🤩 The morning after the incredible April snowfall event. A bit more than 1 meter of fresh powder here. Quite a bit more in the Southern Valais. @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social

Lots of #GLAMOS fieldwork last week with winter mass balance measured on 10 glaciers in just 3 days! 💪❄️ The summary? Little snow so far… but winter is coming. Up to 2 meters of fresh snow forecasted in the coming days! 🌨️🗻 @matthias-huss.bsky.social

The calm before the storm: on Findel #Glacier, Zermatt, 1 meter of snow accumulated since Sep. 2024 - very little. The massive precipitation event announced for tonight might bring 2 meters of fresh snow in two days! The weather's going crazy! Scary somehow...

The beauty of ice-clad mountains is just incredible! Glaciologists marvel at the hanging #glaciers of Piz Palü during our GLAMOS winter surveys. The situation is precarious with extremely little snow, especially on the glacier tongues

Beautiful evening after #glacier fieldwork in Eastern Switzerland 🤩

Snow depth measurements on 4000 masl on Allalin #Glacier today. Great views, very very little snow also here... The winter has been far too dry until now. Hard times ahead for glaciers as soon as the heat sets in! @vaw-glaciology.bsky.social