DENVER — The most prominent glaciers in Colorado thinned dramatically over the past year due to record low mountain snow and record warm temperatures, according to new research. Their shrinking is on par with recent observations of glacier loss across the planet as warmer temperatures accelerate melting and less snow falls to replenish their ice,
The retreat of Papua’s glaciers is driven by the same forces affecting ice around the world, Šabacká notes, a warming atmosphere caused by human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. As temperatures rise, the freezing point moves higher up mountains, so more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow,
In August 2026, back-to-back winter storms left parts of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile covered in a rare blanket of snow. The typically arid region has seen snowfall before, notably in 2025 and before that in 2011. But one of the 2026 events was unusually widespread, stretching from the Andes to near the Pacific
As the effects of the 2026 snow drought in the western United States carry into summer, NASA Earth data is feeding machine-learning forecasts that inform decisions about water, power, and public safety in Washington state. Tacoma Power, a Washington public utility, is using a U.S. technology company’s river-flow forecasts during a year of water
