NIWA’s Post

Today is the first United Nations World Day for Glaciers. Globally, glaciers are receding at unprecedented rates, with impacts on sea-level rise, water resources, hazards, ecosystems and livelihoods. Glaciers in Aotearoa New Zealand are not exempt from this global trend. 📉 Earlier this month, researchers from NIWA, Canterbury University, University of Otago and Victoria University of Wellington, carried out their annual end-of-summer snowline aerial survey, monitoring 50 glaciers across the Southern Alps. ❄️ These surveys involve measuring how much of the previous winter’s snow is remaining on the glaciers and how much snow and ice have melted away during the summer. To remain healthy, glaciers need to retain snow over approximately two-thirds of their surface area. However, in recent years the researchers have found that very little or no snow at all has survived our warm summer temperatures. Dr Andrew Lorrey, NIWA Principal Scientist - Climate and Environment, says, “I’ve led NIWA’s End of Summer Snowline and glacier survey for the past 16 years. Since the time I’ve been involved, we’ve seen widespread disappearance of Southern Alps ice as the summer snowline has rapidly risen in the mountains. “Increasing temperatures, particularly during the warmer months from October through February, have led to this situation. Repeated, extremely hot conditions accompanying marine heatwaves have been hammering the health of our glaciers. Years with near average temperatures or below average temperatures are too few and far between to limit or reverse the damage done.” https://lnkd.in/duc7zH8w 📸 Dr Andrew Lorrey