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Swiss Glaciers Under Threat Again as Heatwave Drives Zero-Temperature Level to Record Altitude 

A team member of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology glaciologist and head of the Swiss measurement network “Glamos”, Matthias Huss, passes the Rhone Glacier covered by sheets near Goms, Switzerland, on June 16, 2023. (AP)
A team member of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology glaciologist and head of the Swiss measurement network “Glamos”, Matthias Huss, passes the Rhone Glacier covered by sheets near Goms, Switzerland, on June 16, 2023. (AP)
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Swiss Glaciers Under Threat Again as Heatwave Drives Zero-Temperature Level to Record Altitude 

A team member of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology glaciologist and head of the Swiss measurement network “Glamos”, Matthias Huss, passes the Rhone Glacier covered by sheets near Goms, Switzerland, on June 16, 2023. (AP)
A team member of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology glaciologist and head of the Swiss measurement network “Glamos”, Matthias Huss, passes the Rhone Glacier covered by sheets near Goms, Switzerland, on June 16, 2023. (AP)

The Swiss weather service said Monday a heatwave has driven the zero-degree Celsius level to its highest altitude since recordings on it in Switzerland began nearly 70 years ago, an ominous new sign for the country's vaunted glaciers.

MeteoSwiss says the zero-degree isotherm level reached 5,298 meters (17,381 feet) above sea level over Switzerland overnight Sunday to Monday. All of Switzerland's snow-capped Alpine peaks — the highest being the 4,634-meter (15,203-foot) Monte Rosa summit — had air temperatures over zero Celsius (32 F) where water freezes to ice, raising prospects of a thaw.

Even Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain along the Italian-French border at some 4,809 meters (15,800 feet), is affected, the weather agency said based on readings from its weather balloons.

The new high altitude eclipsed a previous record set in July 2022, a year that experts say was particularly devastating for the glaciers of Switzerland. Readings have been taken on the zero-degree altitude level since 1954.

“An exceptionally powerful anticyclone and warm air of subtropical origin are currently ensuring scorching weather over the country,” MeteoSwiss said on its website, adding that many measuring stations in Switzerland have set new temperature records in the second half of August.

MeteoSwiss meteorologist Mikhaël Schwander said it marked only the third time such readings had been tallied above 5,000 meters — and that the level was generally around 3,500 to 4,000 meters in a typical summer.

“With a zero-degree isotherm far above 5,000m (meters above sea level), all glaciers in the Alps are exposed to melt — up to their highest altitudes," said Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at the federal technical university in Zurich, ETHZ, in an email. “Such events are rare and detrimental to the glaciers’ health, as they live from snow being accumulated at high altitudes.”

"If such conditions persist in the longer term, glaciers are set to be lost irreversibly,” he said.

A Swiss study last year found that the country's 1,400-odd glaciers — the most in Europe — had lost more than half their total volume since the early 1930s, including a 12-percent decline over the previous six years alone.

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At Florida’s Capybara Cafe, Patrons Hang out with the ‘It’ Animals of the Moment — Furry Rodents

A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)
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At Florida’s Capybara Cafe, Patrons Hang out with the ‘It’ Animals of the Moment — Furry Rodents

A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)

Animal lovers now have a place to hang out with the "it" animals of the moment — big furry rodents.

In the back of a real estate office building in what is known as America's oldest city, capybaras are crawling into visitors' laps, munching on corn on the cob and hunting for scratches from humans at The Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Florida.

"You give them lots of scratches and love," said Stephanie Angel, who opened The Capybara Cafe late last year. "A lot of times they’ll climb on your lap because they’re very used to people, and if you’re really good at giving scratches, they’ll actually fall over. So that’s always our goal to get them so comfortable that they fall over."

Since opening its doors in October in downtown St. Augustine, near the Flagler College campus, hundreds of animal lovers have visited the site to give the capybaras head scratches. Reservations are booked several months in advance by patrons like Leah Macri, who recently visited the northeast Florida location from Orlando with her daughter.

"Their fur kind of feels like straw a bit," Macri said.

After entering a reception area with couches and an open pen of baby chicks, visitors are escorted into a smaller room in groups of a half dozen or so people. Blankets are placed over their laps, and three capybaras are brought into the room. Other animals like a skunk, wallaby and armadillo are also introduced into the room, and they crawl among the humans and into their laps. The cost is $49 per person for a half-hour encounter, and $99 for an hour-long encounter that involves the other animals.

Even though she had come for the capybaras, Macri enjoyed holding the armadillo the most.

"He was the cuddly, like the best. He was just the softest," she said. "He was just very sweet."

The capybara — a semi-aquatic South American relative of the guinea pig — is the latest in a long line of "it" animals to get the star treatment in the United States. During last year's holiday shopping season, shoppers could find capybara slippers, purses, robes and bath bombs. Axolotls, owls, hedgehogs, foxes and sloths also had recent turns in the spotlight.

The web-footed capybaras can grow to more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) long and weigh well north of 100 pounds (45 kilograms).

Several zoos and wildlife parks across the US offer encounters with capybaras, but Angel said none of them provide the intimacy with the animals that visitors get at the Capybara Cafe.

Angel said she plans to open another capybara cafe across the state in St. Petersburg, Florida, soon. The St. Augustine location doesn't sell coffee or hot food, like a cafe implied in its name, but it does sell capybara-themed T-shirts, coffee mugs and stuffed animals.

The cafe was created to financially support the Hastings, Florida-based nonprofit Noah's Ark Sanctuary Inc., an animal refuge, Angel said.

Chris Cooper, who visited the Capybara Cafe with his wife, was surprised at how rough and coarse the capybaras' hair was.

"And I wasn't expecting how affectionate they were," said Cooper, who drove up 157 miles (253 kilometers) from Weeki Wachee to see the critters. "They enjoyed the hands-on rubs."