Alps and Eastern Europe

The Alps are certainly the most studied mountain cryosphere region in the world, with records on snow, ice and glacier extent going back centuries in some Alpine nations.  Mountain ranges of Eastern Europe such as the Caucauses, Urals and Transylvanian Alps, have studies going back almost as far.

The picture of this region shows uniform decline in ice and snow cover over the past century, with warming about 1.5 times the global mean.  Many of the most stark pictures of glacier retreat over time and their impact on local population come from the Alps in particular.  Projections are that snow cover in these regions heavily dependent on tourism will decrease by several weeks for each degree of warming.  For more information about climate change in this region, see the Alpine Convention on Climate Change’s excellent climate change webpages, including its Climate Action Plan 2.0.