Climate Up to eight centimetres less snow per decade in the Alps
The snow depth in the Swiss Alps has decreased by up to eight centimetres every decade over the past sixty years. This is the result of a new analysis by the Swiss Avalanche Research Institute SLF.
20.10.2025, 09:15
SDA
Using the new Spass model ("Spatial Snow climatology for Switzerland"), the researchers have for the first time calculated how the snow cover in Switzerland has changed since 1962 on an area-wide and altitude-dependent basis, as the SLF, which is part of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), announced on Monday.
"This is the first time that we have been able to show trends over a large area and for different altitudes," said SLF climatologist Christoph Marty, according to the press release. "We can clearly see the consequences of climate change here."
At up to eight centimetres per decade, the decrease in snow depth in the high mountain regions is significantly higher than in the already snow-poor Central Plateau, where snow depth decreased by less than one centimetre per decade on average. The percentage losses were greatest on the Central Plateau: while a decline of around four percent per decade was recorded in the Alps at 2000 meters above sea level, the average snow depth on the Central Plateau fell by up to twenty percent per decade.
The SLF used measurement data from 350 stations over the last 25 years for the model. The snow depths from November to April were analyzed.
In future, the results will also be used outside of research - for example in cooperation with Switzerland Tourism and Cableways Switzerland or, in the medium term, in the White Risk avalanche app. MeteoSwiss is planning to make climatological snow information from the model publicly accessible.
