Melting of Alaska’s Juneau icefield accelerates, losing snow nearly 5 times faster than in the 1980s

AP Science Writer

A new study says the melting of Alaska’s Juneau icefield, home to more than 1,000 glaciers, is accelerating. The snow covered area is now shrinking 4.6 times faster than it was in the 1980s. Tuesday’s study finds that it was slowly losing snow since the 18th century, but then that melt rate sped up about 10 years ago. The melting ice is producing on average 50,000 gallons of water every second. Scientists blame climate change. Only four Juneau icefield glaciers shriveled out of existence between 1948 and 2005. But 64 of them disappeared between 2005 and 2019.