A true indicator of global warming, the melting of glaciers is likely to experience a painful episode after an exceptionally dry year in the mountains.
Any mountaineer agrees that the alpine glaciers are particularly open this year: crevasses are impressively streaking their surfaces and the ice is more apparent than ever. The glaciers have indeed very quickly lost their snow coats put on this winter and spring. Some areas of the ice caps that are usually covered in snow have even remained in ice since the start of the season, indicative of an exceptional year.
In question, a very dry winter and a spring also lacking in precipitation which prevented from feeding the alpine glaciers. “The deficit concerns all the border Alps, but the East is particularly concerned as in the Écrins massif (High mountains) or in Haute Maurienne (Savoy)where the mountain is really very dryobserves Emmanuel Thibert, INRAE glaciologist. “Glaciers generally lost their snow cover a month ahead of last year“, adds the scientist.
Melting ice
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