PARIS, Oct 5 The highest point of the Alps, Mont Blanc, has lost 2 meters in height, according to a report by expert geodesists of the French department of Haute-Savoie.
«The height of Mont Blanc is 4805.59 meters in 2023, that is, 2.22 meters less than the last measurement in 2021,» BFMTV reported.
According to Jean de Garette, president of the regional office of geodesists of the Haute-Savoie department, such changes are normal and may depend on precipitation levels.
«In two years, Montban may be two meters taller again,» he noted.
However, in 2021 the mountain also “shrank” by a meter compared to 2017 (the 2019 measurements were invalidated), and in 2007 its height was 4810.90 m.
Experts are alarmed by the rapid melting of the glacier covering the top of the mountain. This summer, which became a record hot on the planet, many temperature records were broken in France. Thus, according to the National Meteorological Service Météo-France, on Mont Blanc, zero temperatures were recorded for the first time above 5 thousand meters.
Measurements of the height of the Alpine peak have been carried out every two years for 20 years.
Earlier, the UN World Meteorological Organization published a forecast according to which global temperatures could reach record high levels over the next five years. This will be facilitated by the anthropogenic factor, that is, greenhouse gases, and natural circumstances — a change in the phases of ocean currents from La Niña to El Niño. Changing the phases of currents will affect not only the average temperature on the planet, but also the precipitation regime.