Swiss Glaciers Record Fourth-Largest Ice Loss in 12 Months

• 10 Oct 2025

On 1st October 2025, monitoring body GLAMOS announced that Switzerland’s glaciers recorded their fourth-largest reduction in ice volume on record.

• The glaciers lost 3% of their total ice mass over the past year due to minimal winter snowfall and intense summer heat waves.

Key Points

• Severe Ice Loss: Swiss glaciers lost 3% of their total volume between October 2024 and September 2025, marking a significant but slightly smaller loss compared to 2022 (5.9%) and 2023 (4.4%).
• Cause of Melt: The combination of low winter snowfall, particularly in the northeastern Swiss Alps, and extreme summer heat waves in June, accelerated the ice melt.
• Worst Decade on Record: Switzerland has experienced its worst decade of glacier loss, with one quarter of total glacier volume lost since 2015, according to GLAMOS.
• Rhone Glacier Impact: The historic Rhone Glacier—once Europe’s largest during the Ice Age—has continued its rapid retreat, thinning by around 1.5 meters in 2025 alone.
• Disappearing Glaciers: GLAMOS reports that about 100 Swiss glaciers vanished between 2016 and 2022, warning that most could disappear by the end of this century if current trends persist.