The ice bank · The year the data got loud

Between July and September about 2,200 billion litres of water melted out of Swiss glaciers, more than four times the drinking water all Swiss households use in a year.

"Alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving in the long term under such conditions," said Matthias Huss, head of GLAMOS.

In the Arctic the minimum of 4.60 million square kilometres ties 2026 with 2025, 2008 and 2010 for the tenth-lowest since satellite records began in 1979, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). It is not a record. The pattern matters more than the year.