North Cascade Glacier Climate Project 2026 Results

We completed our 43rd annual observation of North Cascade glaciers in the field. Three of the glaciers we monitor are global reference glaciers for the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS); Columbia Easton and Rainbow Glacier. The field team was Abby Connor, Shaina Dotson, Rikki Held, Jill Pelto, Mauri Pelto and Ava Reynolds. Ben Pelto, Hannah Conteras, Nina Adjanin and Danielle Schlunegger-Warner This field season follows the 2021-2025 seasons that featured either historic heat waves and/or periods of extended warm weather. The heat led to a greater exposure of bare ice on glaciers with a higher albedo and greater density. The observed melt rates are 7-9 cm/day water equivalent during warm weather events vs 4-6 cm/day for snow surfaces. This led to substantial mass losses on North Cascade glacier for the five years of ~8m. This winter was poor awith April 1 snowpack at the six long term North Cascade stations at 68% of the 1984-2026 mean. April 15th represented the maximum…