The key facts

  • Skuta is Slovenia's last glacier; the Triglav glacier has completely disappeared
  • Skuta's area has shrunk from 2.5–3 ha to 1.5 ha, and the ice thickness to just a few metres
  • Glacier meltwater feeds the Drava and Mura; forecasts predict the disappearance of glaciers below 3,500 m in Austria by 2050

The country's last glacier

The Skuta glacier remains the only glacier in Slovenia. The country's second glacier, located on Triglav — the highest peak — has almost completely melted. Mountain guide Andrej Slak, who has been monitoring glaciers for 35 years, notes that particularly noticeable changes have occurred over the past decade, and their impact on the local community has been devastating. According to him, glaciers served the valley as vital water reservoirs throughout the year: in the past, shepherds stored meat in ice hollows, but now such pockets of ice no longer remain in the mountains. Only a layer of ice on the slope has survived of Skuta; the rest is hidden under stones, where a narrow opening leads into a crevice.

Data from 80 years of observations

This year marked 80 years since the Anton Melik Geographical Institute at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts began monitoring both glaciers. Scientist Miha Pavšek said that at the start of the observations there were about 2.5–3 hectares of ice under Skuta, now there are 1.5 hectares, and the ice has mostly thinned: from several tens of metres to just a few metres. The Triglav glacier covered just over 14 hectares, five to ten years ago 0.5–1 hectare, in recent years less than 0.2 hectares, and now the ice has completely disappeared. On a rock at Skuta, the 1994 glacier level is marked; since then the ice has retreated significantly lower.

Causes of the melting

Pavšek explains the changes as a combination of two factors: a turning point comes when a very snow-poor winter (a low maximum seasonal snow depth) is followed by a very hot summer — exactly such a coincidence was observed this year. According to him, Skuta is following the same path as the Triglav glacier: about 80–90% of the ice surface is covered with gravel, which provides additional protection from the sun, but the ice is melting on all sides. Inside the cavity beneath the ice, water is already dripping from the ceiling.

Consequences beyond the mountains

Water from the glaciers feeds major rivers, including the Drava in Croatia and the Mura, which rises in Austria. According to the latest forecasts, by 2050 all glaciers below the 3,500-metre mark there will disappear, meaning less water in the rivers, which in turn feed groundwater — the source of drinking water from wells. Local tourist Tanja Plavec noted that glaciers are an important reserve of the Earth's fresh water and a unique ecosystem, which are disappearing along with the perennial ice.

Climate context

This year Europe experienced an exceptionally hot and dry summer, the intensity of which, according to scientists, would have been practically impossible without human influence on the climate through the burning of fossil fuels. According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world: since the 1980s, temperatures here have been rising twice as fast as the global average.