No snow was left in the Alps last summer for the first time EVER, grim climate report reveals
No snow was left in the Alps last summer for the first time in history, according to a damning new report. Scientists warn that European glacier melt has been 'off the charts' during the past few years, in the midst of worsening . The Swiss Alps lost six per cent of its glacier volume between 2021 and last year, intensified by heatwaves, lack of snow and gusts of Saharan dust. Experts also recorded a temperature of 0C at a record-breaking height of 5,000m - occurring for the first time in almost 70 years. Ahead of the report's release, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that 'we must pick up the pace' and act rapidly to mitigate against the issues of global warming. He said: 'We have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions. But we must pick up the pace. We need accelerated climate action with deeper, faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius. 'We also need massively scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities who have done the least to cause the crisis.' The State of the Global Climate 2022, released today, revealed that the past eight years have been the hottest on record globally, while in Europe records have been shattered in terms of glacier melt. The European mountain range is famously covered in a blanket of snow for the majority of the year, attracting skiers and snowboarders across the world. But the stark effects of climate change saw this blanket disappear altogether, as snow melt kickstarted one month earlier than usual in 2022. When Saharan dust blew onto the mountain range last March, this melt sped up even further as the reflection of solar energy was limited. Blair Trewin at the World Meteorological Organisation told : 'It was quite a dry winter, so the amount of snow that accumulated during the winter was less than usual, and then there was a very consistently hot summer. So you had more rapid melt than usual.' has also shown that vegetation above its tree line has increased across nearly 80 per cent of the Alps during the last 38 years. This came as snow cover had decreased significantly in almost 10 per cent of the area measured. However, the Alps were by no means an anomaly, with glaciers in North America, South America and parts of the Arctic experiencing substantial glacier loss too. Meanwhile, other regions of Europe grappled with as the continent endured its hottest summer on record. Arctic sea-ice was below the 19912020 average for most of 2022, while Antarctic sea ice also dipped to a record low. Africa's drought displaced more than 1.7 million people in Somalia and Ethiopia, while Pakistan's devastating flooding displaced about eight million people. WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas added: 'At the moment about one hundred countries do not have adequate weather services in place. Achieving this ambitious task requires improvement of observation networks, investments in early warning, hydrological and climate service capacities.'