No snow was left in the Alps last summer for the first time EVER, grim climate report reveals

Last summer, snow fell in the Alps for the first time in history, according to a devastating new report.

Scientists warn that the melting of European glaciers has been “off the charts” in recent years amid worsening climate change.

The Swiss Alps lost six percent of their glacier volume between 2021 and last year, amplified by heat waves, lack of snow and gusts of Saharan dust.

Experts also recorded a temperature of 0°C at a record altitude of 5,000 m – the first time in almost 70 years.

Ahead of the report’s release, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that “we need to pick up the pace” and act quickly to counter global warming challenges.

He said: ‘We have the tools, the knowledge and the solutions. But we need to pick up the pace. We need accelerated climate action with deeper, faster emissions reductions to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“We also need massively scaled-up investment in adaptation and resilience, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities that have done the least to trigger the crisis.”

The State of the Global Climate 2022, released today, revealed that the past eight years have been the warmest globally on record, while Europe has broken records in terms of glacier melt.

The European mountain range is covered with a blanket of snow for most of the year, attracting skiers and snowboarders all over the world.

But the grim effects of climate change made this blanket disappear altogether, as snow began to melt a month earlier than usual in 2022.

When dust from the Sahara hit the mountain range in March last year, this melting accelerated even further because the reflection of solar energy was limited.

Blair Trewin of the World Meteorological Organization The times: ‘It was a fairly dry winter, so the amount of snow that accumulated during the winter was less than normal, and then there was a very consistently hot summer. So you’re melting faster than usual.’

Other research from the past year has also shown that vegetation above the tree line has increased in nearly 80 percent of the Alps over the past 38 years.

This was because snow cover had significantly decreased in nearly 10 percent of the measured area.

Lack of snow cover was exacerbated by heat waves and gusts of dust from the Sahara (file image)

Satellite images show how the Alps are greening as temperatures rise

However, the Alps were by no means an anomaly, with glaciers in North America, South America, and parts of the Arctic also experiencing significant glacier loss.

Meanwhile, other regions of Europe struggled with intense wildfires and severe heat stress as the continent endured its hottest summer on record.

Arctic sea ice was below its 1991–2020 average for most of 2022, while Antarctic sea ice also fell to record lows.

Drought in Africa has displaced more than 1.7 million people in Somalia and Ethiopia, while devastating floods in Pakistan have displaced around eight million people.

Professor Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the WMO, added: ‘Currently about a hundred countries do not have adequate weather services. To accomplish this ambitious task, improvement of observation networks and investments in early warning, hydrological and climate services capabilities are required.”

GLOBAL WARMING AND MOUNTAINS

Certain gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat, similar to the glass roof of a greenhouse, and they are called greenhouse gases

During the day, the sun shines through the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface heats up in the sunlight

At night, the Earth’s surface cools, releasing heat back into the air, but some of the heat is retained by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

Human activities, for example burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil, release more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere

Too much of these greenhouse gases could cause Earth’s atmosphere to trap more and more heat, warming the planet

Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased the average global temperature by about 1.8°F (1°C), a number that is currently increasing at 0.36°F (0.2°C) per decade

Permafrost, glaciers and ice caps are all struggling to stay intact in the face of the warmer climate

Some animal and plant species rely heavily on cold conditions and migrate to higher elevations to find suitable habitat

This puts great strain on ecosystems as more and more animals and species live in an ever-shrinking region

On top of environmental pressures, the lack of ice on the mountains greatly increases the risks of landslides and volcanic eruptions

Permafrost, glaciers and ice sheets are all struggling to stay intact in the face of the warmer climate resulting from global warming