After the worst summer on record for glaciers, snow has begun to fall in Europe. It's necessary.
I haven't seen a summer like this in 19 years of studying the glaciers. There is a lot of change.
The word "extreme" used to be used to describe the annual ice loss on glaciers. Swiss glaciers have lost an average of 6.2 percent of their ice this year.
90 percent of the Sun's radiation back into the atmosphere will be reflected by the new snow, which will limit the warming and melting of the ice beneath.
The mass of a glacier is increased when snow falls over the winter and doesn't melt in the summer. Glaciers would begin to advance downhill over a few years.
Over the past 100 years, that has not been the case. Glaciers around the world have been wasting away since the end of the ice age in the late 1800s because the protective layers of snow have not been thick enough.
This summer will be back to normal. Glaciers were not well insulated against the upcoming summer melt season because of the limited snowfall across the Alps.
Natural weather patterns carried Saharan dust to Europe and blanketed the Alpine landscape in the spring. Since dust absorbs more solar energy than snow, the snow melted quickly.
The Alps were not left out. Despite being 1,620 meters above sea level, Zermatt, a famous car-free Swiss village, recorded a temperature of 33 C.
Glaciers were attacked. The Alps looked like they normally do in September, with snow and ice-fed rivers. This was not something you would expect.
The last time glaciers had an extreme melt season was in 2003 when temperatures were very high across Europe and a heatwave killed tens of thousands of people. The glacier ice melted across Switzerland.
For the first time in its history, the summer season in Zermatt ended. The guides stopped leading expeditions because of the rockfalls caused by the thaw of the ground. Mont Blanc was not open.
Thanks to the Alpine Glacier Project and the University of Salford, we are able to put this in historical context.
Scores of students have helped to observe the effect of our warming climate through a variety of activities.
The two glaciers have retreated 1,385 meters and 1,655 meters over the last five decades.
The glaciers are used for hydropower in Switzerland. Water falling on 93 percent of Switzerland goes through at least one power plant before it leaves the country.
One consequence of melting glaciers is that they help to compensate for low precipitation in times of dry weather.
Not all glaciers were affected by the retreat this summer. This is true in some way.
The degree to which a glacier has melted depends on a number of factors. Climate factors may also be local.
According to research just published, Austrian glaciers have lost more ice than they have in 70 years of observations, and so it's clear that severe melt has been the norm.
Visiting and viewing the geography of high mountain environments is a wonderful experience, but I am afraid that the continued ice melt and extreme temperatures seen this year are not an exception.
Within a generation, there could be many more glaciers.
Neil Entwistle is a professor at the University of Salford.
Under a Creative Commons license, this article is re-posted. The original article is worth a read.
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