Scientific Reports, 29 April 2026
Extreme weather events increasingly shape how Himalayan glaciers gain and lose ice from year to year. Chhota Shigri Glacier in the western Himalaya experienced its worst ice loss on record during 2022 after unusually intense spring and summer heatwaves affected mountain regions across the Northern Hemisphere, including the Himalaya, Alps, Rockies, and Tibetan Plateau. Just one year later however, Chhota Shigri temporarily recovered some of its size when cooler spring temperatures alongside extreme summer snowfall slowed melting in 2023. More than 0.3 meters of snow fell over three days in July 2023, covering the glacier with fresh snow that reflected sunlight and slowed ice loss. The study shows how short-lived weather extremes strongly affect glacier conditions in individual years, even as long-term glacier decline continues.
Dear Friends of the Cryosphere Pavilion and Cryosphere Capsule Readers! We are happy to announce…
Nature Communications, 21 July 2026 Rising sea levels driven by ocean warming and ice sheet…
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 26 June 2026 East Antarctica has long been considered less…
Geophysical Research Letters, 9 July 2026 Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is the cold, dense water…
PNAS, 20 July 2026 After several years in the early 2020s when Arctic winter sea…
Nature Communications, 16 July 2026 Temporarily exceeding global warming targets increases the risk of long-lasting…