A TOP climate scientist has warned that a warm early summer combined with a heatwave last week may have caused severe glacier melt in Switzerland, threatening to make 2023 its second-worst year for ice loss after a record thaw last year.

Matthias Huss of the Glamos glacier monitoring centre said that full data would not be in until late September and a precipitous drop in temperatures and high-altitude snowfall in recent days could help stem any more damage.

But early signs based on readings from five sites and modelling results across Switzerland suggest that considerable damage may already be done.