Researchers have confirmed that the flash floods that caused destruction throughout Nepal and Tibet were preceded by unusually high temperatures. This was a contributing factor to the glacier falling, which crashed into the valleys below with earthquake intensity.
Researchers from Imperial College London and World Weather Attribution, stated that the flash floods were the result of bad ingredients in the disastrous cocktail – including factors made worse by greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming.
The glacier fell around 4,660ft, liquidised and created an immediate flood of ice cold water. The flood raced through villages and took the lives of thousands of locals.
The report also mentions that the region’s glaciers have been thinning by more than half a metre each year, while the Langtang-Lirung glacier’s retreat has accelerated significantly since 2010. The freezing threshold has also been moving upwards by around 100 metres every decade.
The study says that “rock avalanches of this size are rare, with annual frequency estimates of approximately one event this size every 1,000–10,000 years. This event shows that limits to adaptation are already being reached.”
The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) latest global water report says every major glaciated region recorded ice loss for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, meaning more incidents like the Nepal floods could happen.
Between 2023 and 2025, global glaciers lost the equivalent of 560 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The wider climate picture is also becoming increasingly stark, with the WMO confirming that the past 11 years have been the hottest on record.
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