Researchers say goodbye to the last glacier in the Allgäu Alps

The Schwarzmilzferner glacier on the Austrian side of the Allgäu High Alps has lost its status as a glacier following this year's hot summer.

The warm months have cost it over 4 metres in thickness and around half its volume, researchers revealed on Saturday.

"It is highly likely to have disappeared completely by next summer," said Christoph Mayer, a glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

For 26 years, he and his colleagues have been closely monitoring what was once the last glacier in the Allgäu High Alps on the Austrian side, and have been documenting significant losses in ice mass since 2016.

"This trend has intensified further since 2022. It has been clear ever since that the glacier's days are numbered," said Mayer. In addition to thickness and volume, a crucial factor in defining a glacier is whether it flows - which is no longer the case with the Schwarzmilzferner either.

The ice field, which is close to the border between Austria and Germany lies at an altitude of around 2,450 metres, is by no means an isolated case.

"Several smaller glaciers in the Alps disappear every year," said Mayer, calling the trend virtually unstoppable.

"Even if there is heavy snowfall in winter, the ice masses are shrinking rapidly. The summers have now become too hot for them," he said.

"As things stand, I expect the entire Eastern Alps to be ice-free between 2060 and 2070," Mayer said.