BERN, Switzerland — Swiss glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice in 2026, another year of severe decline that scientists say is driven by rising temperatures. The losses were especially high at the country’s largest glaciers, including the Rhône and Aletsch, according to the annual monitoring report released by Switzerland’s GLAMOS glacier network and the Swiss Academy of Sciences. The 2026 loss was slightly below the record 6% recorded in 2022, largely because more winter snow covered the ice this year. But the difference offers little reassurance: Matthias Huss, who leads GLAMOS, said some glacier areas he revisited after a long, hot summer were nearly bare. “They are completely devoid of ice,” Huss said, describing exposed rock with scattered remnants of melting ice. Alpine plants are beginning to grow in some places once buried beneath meters of glacier ice. The retreat matters well beyond the mountain landscape. Glaciers store winter snow and release meltwater through spring and summer, helping feed major European waterways including the Rhine and Danube. That water supports agriculture, freight transport and energy infrastructure. Low river levels this summer halted freight traffic on parts of the Rhine and Danube and forced temporary shutdowns at nuclear power stations that use river water for cooling. Huss said the rivers had water, in part, because glaciers themselves were melting. Once that stored ice is gone, drought could put additional pressure on farmers and food supplies. The loss of ice and warming of mountain permafrost can also weaken slopes, increasing the risk of landslides and floods. In 2025, a glacier collapse destroyed the Swiss village of Blatten, burying 300 homes beneath an estimated 9 million cubic meters of ice, rock and mud. Residents were evacuated before the collapse, but a year later were still living in temporary accommodation, uncertain whether they could return. Huss cautioned that mountain disasters have multiple causes and cannot be attributed to warming alone. But he said climate change can help trigger them by intensifying heat, removing ice and thawing permafrost. About 1,200 smaller Swiss glaciers have disappeared over the past 50 years. If global warming continues at its current pace, the monitoring network projects that all of Switzerland’s glaciers could be gone by the end of this century.