This combination of two photographs created on September 30, 2024, shows (Top) the Rhone Glacier, above Gletsch, partly covered with insulating fabric to prevent it from melting on July 14, 2015, and (Bottom) The Rhone Glacier at the same location above Gletsch, on September 30, 2024. A snowy winter provided no respite for Switzerland's glaciers, which shed 2.4 percent of their volume over the past year, with sand blown in from the Sahara accelerating the summer melt. The past 12 months have been "exceptional both in terms of accumulation and melt" for the Swiss glaciers, a fresh study from Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) showed on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)