The Associated Press reported that Slovenia’s Triglav Glacier had no surface ice by summer’s end in 2026, after nearly eight decades of monitoring as sparse snow and summer heat left it exposed to melting longer.
At Kredarica, the weather station beneath the country’s highest peak, the 1991-2020 average snow depth for June 1 was about 150 centimeters. In 2026, snow cover ended the previous day, May 31. The season’s maximum depth was 220 centimeters, below the 374-centimeter average seasonal maximum for 1991-2020, the Slovenian government said.
The government attributed the ice loss to scant winter snow, its early retreat and high summer temperatures, which left the remaining ice exposed to melting for a longer stretch. It said the Alps are warming two to three times faster than the global average. Slovenia’s glaciers are especially sensitive to climate change because of their low elevation and southeastern position in the Alps, according to the country’s Environment Agency.
Monitoring began in 1946, when Triglav Glacier covered about 14 hectares. Slovenia’s Environment Agency (ARSO) lists its measured area at 0.70 hectares in 2003, 0.60 hectares in 2019 and 1.30 hectares in 2020, the latest year in its published series. ARSO’s measure includes snow directly above or alongside the ice, and snowy years can increase the recorded area. The government says the long-term record documents the glacier’s retreat and helps researchers examine its connection to climate change.
Slovenia’s other glacier, Skuta, continued to shrink and had broken into separate ice patches in 2026, the government said. The Associated Press reported that glacier and snowmelt feed regional rivers and groundwater and that high-altitude Slovenian mountain huts faced water shortages during the previous two summers.
Matija Zorn, director of the Anton Melik Geographical Institute, told The Guardian that Triglav “holds a central place in Slovenian national identity.”
