Accelerate ablation! What is the situation? Alpine glaciers have snow | glaciers | Alps
Last summer, the once-in-a-century high temperature left a vivid impression on Europeans, and this year's heatwave is rolling in. The European Environment Agency recently announced that frequent extreme weather events such as high temperatures, floods, and droughts may become the "new normal" of summer in Europe. The high temperatures in summer and limited snow in winter, coupled with years of extreme weather, have accelerated the melting of Alpine glaciers.
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The Rh ô ne Glacier is located deep in the Swiss Alps, where there used to be a famous Rh ô ne Glacier Hotel.
Opening the old photos and postcards of this restaurant, the glacier in front of the restaurant stands out, from left to right. These four photos were taken in 1869, 1914, 1978, and 2020 respectively, clearly recording the retreat process of the Rhone Glacier.
CCTV reporter Yang Chun: It took three and a half hours from Geneva to arrive at the famous Rhone Glacier Hotel. The map shows that the Rhone Glacier is 13 kilometers ahead. The most famous feature of the Ronald Glacier Hotel in the past was the nearby Ronald Glacier, which means you can walk on the glacier by pushing the door. But now, more than 160 years have passed, the hotel has closed and the glacier has retreated 13 kilometers away.
There were once about 1500 glaciers in Switzerland, and according to data from the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Center, due to global warming, Alpine temperatures have been rising year by year, resulting in a loss of one-third of the total ice content of Swiss glaciers between 2001 and 2022. And this year, researchers from the Glacier Monitoring Center have found that the amount of snow on glaciers has significantly decreased, which is an important indicator of glacier health.
Matthias Huss, Director of the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Center: Every April, we measure the amount of snow on glaciers. The snow on glaciers has a protective effect on them, and the past winter is catastrophic for glaciers because the weather in Europe is dry and warm. We have found that the snow cover in high-altitude areas of the Alps is lower than in normal years, with reduced snow cover and earlier glacier melting. We will see more glacier melting in the summer.