During these summer months, many tourists went to the highest peaks of the Alps, but what they found there frightened them, because, especially in the area of ​​​​Mont Blanc, the fall of very large pieces of rock reached an unusually large number. It is because of the past winter, when little snow fell, and this incredibly dry and hot summer.

In July, it was extremely hot not only in populated areas, but also in the area of ​​the highest peaks of the Alps. For example, at the Swiss weather station Jungfraujoch at an altitude of 3,580 m, which is also the highest station in Europe, the temperature was close to a record.

During two days in July, the temperature exceeded 9 degrees, and at night it exceeded 4 degrees, in places where the temperature is usually below -3, -5 degrees for summer. In Jungfrau, the absolute maximum for all time was +12.8, on Mont Blanc +9.3 C.

At the weather station located in the French Alps at an altitude of more than 3600 m, there were nights when the minimum temperature did not drop below +6 C, and this made the trails very dangerous.

What is the connection between dry summer and rock falls? It all started in winter, when the glaciers in the Alps were exposed because there was little snow, and as a result, many cracks formed in the rock.

It did not matter that in the first months of 2022, the Saharan sand reached the alpine glaciers, and the ice melted much faster, because of the Saharan sand it became dark. Then, already in May, the drought began, and in June and July there was heat also in the highlands.

Alpine glaciers are becoming unstable due to prolonged drought and extremely high temperatures, meaning mountain trails are dangerous even for experienced hikers.

The gorges are becoming impassable in more and more places, and as a result of these factors mentioned above, rockfalls have reached record levels, with the largest rocks descending into the valley being the size of a refrigerator.

The highlands were destabilized by this month of dry weather. If in the summer before the pandemic, guides took more than 120 tourists to Mont Blanc per day, now only a few dozen at most. Guides have also limited their work in the area of ​​the Matterhorn summit, as well as in northern Italy.

Rockfalls have become so frequent that some mountain guides have turned away tourists, although 2022 could be a good year for them after the pandemic seriously affected tourism in the alpine zone in 2020 and also partially in the 2021 season.

Sources: phys.org, AFP, Guardian

Photo source: Dreamstime.com