This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The most prominent glaciers in Colorado thinned dramatically over the past year due to record-low mountain snow and record-warm temperatures, according to new research. Their shrinking is on par with recent observations of glacier loss across the planet as warmer temperatures accelerate melting and less snow falls to replenish their ice, threatening water sources, increasing mountain hazards and contributing to sea level rise.
While glaciologists typically measure changes over longer intervals, glaciologist Dan McGrath at Colorado State University sought to find out what happened over 2026 since it was such an exceptional year. The state's worst snowpack on record, followed by record summer heat, left the year-round ice masses in the Rocky Mountains exposed. The Andrews Glacier thinned by more than 12 feet (3.7 meters) in this single year, the Arapaho Glacier lost nearly 10 feet (3 meters), and the Isabelle Glacier lost about 6.5 feet (2 meters)—doubling their rate of thinning from the prior five years, McGrath said.
In the decade before that, the thinning measured a foot (0.3 meters) or less per year. Mary's Glacier, a perennial snowfield popular among hikers and skiers, melted completely in September. "What we're witnessing is the loss of that part of Colorado's identity.
And it's not just Colorado," said McGrath, who specializes in glacier dynamics. "Obviously we see it in the Alps and we're seeing it in other mountain ranges in the western U.S., the European Alps and globally. There are very clear, consistent patterns across these ranges." More than 7 trillion tons of ice (6.5 trillion metric tons) has been lost worldwide since 2000, according to research, a slow-motion disaster that sometimes provokes sudden devastation: More than 1,300 people were killed in August after a massive section of rock and overlying glacier collapsed near Nepal's border with China.
Glaciers in Switzerland lost 5.5% of their ice volume this year, the second-biggest percentage drop on record, due to heat waves and low winter snowfall. The GLAMOS Swiss glacier monitoring service and Swiss Academy of Sciences said this month that alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving long term under such conditions. Switzerland is home to the most glaciers in the Alps.
In Washington state, researchers with the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project have surveyed six glaciers on Mount Baker during an annual summer trip. Director Mauri Pelto said this year's survey shows the fastest average retreat since 1950 with the collapse of several large ice caves, which form as warm air circulates in retreating glaciers. Mountain glaciers in the contiguous United States average just 0.16 square miles (0.41 square kilometers), or about 100 acres (about 40 hectares), and are widely distributed at high elevations.
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