Normal summer or climate catastrophe?

Alarming photos from Zugspitze

Created: 07/25/2022, 16:07

By: Johannes Welte

The Schneeferner on July 24, 2022. It has largely disappeared.

© zugspitze.panomax.com

A warm summer like in the past or a climate catastrophe?

This is currently the subject of heated debate.

The pictures of the Zugspitze speak for themselves.

The environmental research station at the Schneefernerhaus on the Zugspitze had already sounded the alarm on July 4: "Never since records began in 1901 was the snow depth on the Zugspitze so low in June." 84 centimeters were measured at the beginning of June.

A year earlier it was four meters!

The highest snow depth was 6.7 meters in 1965.

Zugspitze: Still as little snow in early summer as this year

"In the further course of the month, it continued to decrease, so that the Schneferner has already largely snowed out (snow-free, ed.)", the station continued on the 4th.

Yesterday the last bits of snow on the Zugspitze glacier almost melted.

That means: The Schneeferner is completely exposed to the sun; in the past, the white blanket of snow often protected it well into August.

The Schneeferner on July 24, 2021 © zugspitze.panomax.com

Snow on the Zugspitze: record melt was in sight

Glacier researcher Christoph Mayer from the Academy of Sciences in Munich already expected at the beginning of July that a record melt could threaten this year.

Reasons for the rapid decline: not enough snow in winter, a dry spring and now the hot summer.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular GAP newsletter.

The Schneeferner in late summer 1910 © Collection Society for Ecological Research/ Sylvia Hamberger

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According to the Swiss glacier researcher Matthias Huss, there was also the Sahara dust in winter.

Its dark color made the little snow melt even faster.

The second report of the Bavarian Commission for Glaciology already expected in 2021 that the Schneeferner glacier on the Zugspitze will have disappeared in ten to 15 years.

It could happen much faster.

Melting snow on the Zugspitze: rescue attempt with tarpaulins failed

From 1993 to 2012, the operators of the Zugspitzbahn tried to protect the Schneeferner from the sun and rain with white plastic tarpaulins.

After all, the area that could be covered was too small and the slopes too steep.

The covering has been cancelled.

You can find more current news from the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen at Merkur.de/Garmisch-Partenkirchen.