Two years of severe, record-breaking heat have taken a toll on New Zealand's glaciers. But the trend of declining ice is long term.
Every year scientists in New Zealand fly over some of the country’s most iconic glaciers – ancient ice “rivers” that descend from the Southern Alps, a spine of mountains that extend along the South Island. And almost every year, they find them shrinking. This year was no different. At the end of March, the team of scientists spent eight hours flying over the peaks, taking thousands of photographs of glaciers for the annual snowline survey.
But when the snowline is higher up, more of the glacier is exposed to melting – sending it into the red – and it will shrink. “Right now, we see rapid changes happening in the mountains, with indications that the snowline rise is accelerating along with ice loss,” Lorrey said. The results from this year’s flight will be fed into a report on longer term variability in the glaciers which will come out later in the year. The climate crisis is having a huge impact.
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