The summer of 2022 became the worst for the European Alps.
Changes in the Earth's climate lead to the fact that summer becomes increasingly hot, which leads to rather unpleasant consequences. Yes, the glaciers of the Alps have been melting this summer at a rate that exceeds all values recorded before, writes Neil Entwistle from the University of Salford in an article for The Conversation.
According to him, the summer of 2022 has become the worst for the European Alps. It ended and, fortunately, snow began to fall in the mountains. The scientist admits that in the 19 years he has been studying the Swiss Alps, he has never seen a worse summer. And “the scale of change is staggering”.
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Glacologists use the term “extreme” to describe the annual loss of ice within 2% of the total mass glacier In the same year, Swiss glaciers lost 6.2% of their ice.
Falling snow can form a protective coating that can reflect 90% of sunlight back into the atmosphere and limit the heating of the ice below. When snow falls in winter and then does not melt in summer, it increases the mass of the glacier. Eventually, gravity takes its toll and the glacier slides down the slope.
But things were not like that last century. The protective layers of snow were not thick enough to compensate for the effects of summer temperatures. Therefore, glaciers around the world have been melting since about the 1800s.
The previous winter saw little snow in the Alps, so the glaciers were not ready for the summer of 2022. The spring was especially harsh, when natural processes brought dust from the Sahara to Europe, which covered the glaciers. Because dust absorbs more sunlight than snow, the ice melted faster.
In the summer, a heat wave led to the fact that temperature records were broken throughout Europe. The Alps were not left behind. For example, in Zermatt, the famous Swiss village in the shadow of the Matterhorn, where car traffic is prohibited, the temperature reached 33 °C, despite the fact that it is 1,620 meters above sea level.
Glaciers were also affected. Already in July, the Alps looked like they usually do in September: without snow, with rivers of snow and ice flowing from the peaks. The last time something like this was observed was in 2003, when Europe was also covered by extreme heat, which killed about 30 thousand people. Then the glaciers lost 3.8% of their ice.
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This year, Zermatt closed its summer skiing for the first time. Guides stopped conducting high-altitude expeditions because the permafrost—the frozen soil that binds the rocks together—thawed and caused near-constant rock falls. Mont Blanc was closed.
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