Thanks to late snow: Average winter balance of the glaciers

This is shown by measurements in the Hohe Tauern, Geosphere Austria informed on Monday by broadcast. If there was extremely little snow in midwinter, the snow cover then increased significantly. “For the long-term development of glaciers in Austria, however, the weather in summer is more important than in winter,” explained expert Anton Neureiter. “The late snow makes a big difference for the mass balance of the winter half-year. If the measurements had taken place on May 1 instead of May 25, the winter mass balance would have been about 15 percent lower,” emphasized Neureiter. Geosphere, together with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, measures the glaciers on the Hoher Sonnblick (Goldbergkees and Kleinfleisskees) every spring. “In order to calculate the increase in mass last winter, we determined the snow depth with probes at around 450 points on the glacier and determined the snow density at five other positions in snow shafts,” reported Neureiter.

The first evaluations show a gain in mass in the winter half-year, which roughly corresponds to the average of the past few years. The average snow depth this year at the end of May on the Goldbergkees was 415 centimeters (ten centimeters above the average of previous years). This corresponds to an increase in mass of 1,800 kilograms per square meter and was six percent above the average of previous years. On the Kleinfleisskees, the average snow depth was also ten centimeters above average. The increase in mass of 1,550 kilograms per square meter was even eight percent above the average.

However, the weather in summer is more decisive for the long-term melting rate of the glaciers. “The decisive factor is whether occasional cold air rushes bring snow to the glaciers in summer. Because a fresh, very white snow cover reflects almost 100 percent of the sun’s rays and can protect the glacier from melting for up to a week. A glacier without fresh snow, on the other hand, is much darker , therefore absorbs a lot of solar radiation and can lose up to half a meter of ice thickness in a week,” explained Neureiter.