In just two years, this snow lost 45 % of its surface. The country has lost 91 % of its glaciers since the 19th century.
News Cali.
Colombia continues to lose its glaciers. This is revealed by the most recent estimate of the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), which warns about the accelerated recoil of these ice masses.
According to the entity, between 2022 and 2024, the national glacier surface was reduced by 6.8 %, which is equivalent to a loss of 2.26 km². Currently, there are only 30.83 km², compared to 33.09 km² that existed just two years ago.
The most critical case is that of Santa Isabel Nevado, located in the Los Nevados Natural Park, between the departments of Caldas and Tolima. According to Ideam, if the current trend continues, this glacier will be the first to disappear completely in the next five years.
“In just two years he lost 45 % of its surface, and in 2024 one of its most emblematic relics, called ‘Conejeras Glacier’, recognized worldwide for its monitoring and nationally by tourism, was extinguished, closing an 18 -year cycle of observation and monthly registration by Ideam,” said the entity.
The child: the phenomenon that is melting our glaciers
Ideam experts attribute this alarming loss to the El Niño phenomenon 2023-2024, which raised temperatures and drastically reduced the rains, accelerating the melting of the accumulated snow during the previous girl and the exposed ice.
A worrying case is that of the White Ritacuba glacier, in the Sierra Nevada of El Cocuy or Güicán, which reduced its thickness in 7 meters during this phenomenon. In fact, this version of El Niño has had a greater impact than that registered in 2015-2016: it caused a 22 % higher melting in this Sierra Nevada.
In addition, it was evidenced that 75 % of glacier loss occurred below 5,000 meters of altitude, which shows that the lowest areas are being razed by heat.
Nevado Balance: Thus the glaciers go back in Colombia
Ideam estimate revealed the following setbacks by glacier region:
- Sierra Nevada de El Cocuy or Güicán: It lost 7.4 % of its area. Glaciers such as hills of the square, Güicán and Pico Blanco could disappear before 2026. The white bell glacier has already disappeared in 2024.
- Nevado del Ruiz: It lost 6.6 %. The recio glacier had the largest linear setback in the country, with 280 meters.
- Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: 8.7 %reduction. There are glaciers with the highest lower edge in the country, more than 5,000 m snm
- Nevado del Huila: The least setback with 2.6 %.
- Nevado del Tolima: loss of 8.2 %. It is the second smallest glacial mass, with just 0.45 km²after Santa Isabel.
🧊 Glaciers do not melt in silence …
📉 Colombia lost 2.26 km² of ice between 2022 and 2024.
🌡️ Global warming and the child accelerate the setback.
⏳ Today there are only 30.83 km².Each meter counts.
👉 https://t.co/lou152ag6n#GlaciaSColombia #Changeoclimatic pic.twitter.com/w3qSOO91YH– Ideam Colombia (@ideamcolombia) July 19, 2025
According to Ideam, Colombia has lost 91 % of its glacial surface since the mid -nineteenth century. The setback does not give truce, and the current panorama only confirms what many scientists fear: the country could run out of glaciers in the coming decades.
“If the trend of the last 40 years is maintained, Colombia could gradually become a country without glaciers,” says Ideam.
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