Swiss Glaciers Face Possible Extreme Summer Melting Period

GLETSCH, SWITZERLAND - JUNE 20: Water from the melting Rhone glacier runs down the glacier's surphace on June 20, 2022 near Gletsch, Switzerland. The bottom of the glacier is covered in tarps, which are designed to reflect away the sun’s rays and reduce melting, that cover a hewn ice grotto that is an annual tourist attraction. This summer is likely to be especially brutal for Switzerland’s glaciers. Normally in mid-June the glaciers would still be covered in snow that protects them from the sun, though because very little snow fell this year, the glaciers are already exposed and melting rapidly under conditions that are more typical for late July or August. Matthias Huss, a glaciologist with ETH Zurich university and head of the Swiss glacier monitoring network, and his colleagues are studying approximately 20 glaciers, including the Rhone glacier, across Switzerland to observe the effects of global warming. All of the glaciers are melting, and he predicts that if we do not meet global climate goals Switzerland’s glaciers will be mostly gone by 2100. The Rhone glacier has lost an average of five meters per year in vertical thickness over the last ten years. (Footage by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)