Heatwave pushes freezing point to record high above Swiss Alps, moves Italian-Swiss border

The unprecedented heatwave in Europe has pushed the freezing point in Switzerland way above its highest summits.

According to a tweet by MeteoSwiss, weather balloons went as high as 5,184 metres (17,008 feet) before they could find a freezing point.

The last time weather balloons crossed a height of 5,000 metres was in 1995. They had managed to find a freezing point at 5,117 metres, 375 metres above the summit of Europe's highest peak, Mont Blanc, in the French Alps.

Weather balloons are released into the atmosphere to collect local data for meteorologists to make forecasts and predict storms. In Switzerland, they are launched twice a day from Payerne in the west of the country.

The high temperatures have even caused the border between Switzerland and Italy to shift. The border between Italy and Switzerland runs for 800.2 km. The ice on and around the Matterhorn mountain has been melting and is literally moving the mountainous border between the two countries, writes The Local.

"In some places, Switzerland has gained territory and in others, it has lost it," said Alain Wicht, who is in charge of national border layouts at the Federal Office of Topography (Swisstopo).

Swiss glaciologist Matthias Huss also expressed concerns about the situation and warned: "Glaciers in the Alps are so completely off from what we've seen before. I'm really alarmed by the situation."

Climate change and global warming continue to be the biggest threats to the planet. In 2020, scientists' climate change models predicted that the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are also melting at a "worst-case scenario" rate.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Leeds and the Danish Meteorological Institute. As per the findings, a further increase in sea levels could put 16 million people in danger of coastal flooding by the end of the century.

Most parts of Europe are reeling under severe heatwave conditions. Wildfires have torn through much of Europe in recent weeks. Countries like France, Portugal, and Spain have been seeing extremely high temperatures. Heatwaves have become more common due to climate change. Globally, the decade to 2019 was the hottest ever recorded, and the five hottest years have all occurred within the last five years.