The melting was so extreme this year that in one place a rock buried for a thousand years reappeared, and bodies and even the remains of a plane that disappeared in a part of the Alps several decades ago were found. Other small glaciers have almost disappeared.

More than half of the Alps’ glaciers are in Switzerland, where temperatures are rising at about twice the world average.

Scientists in the area, including Huss, have been forced to make emergency repairs at dozens of sites in the Alps because melting ice could dislodge their measuring poles and compromise their data. The big losses this year, which amounted to about 3 cubic kilometers of ice, are the result of the extremely low amount of winter snow in combination with heat waves.