Pakistan, British Columbia issue glacial flood warnings amid record ice loss

Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority issued a glacier melting alert for June 27 to July 3, warning that persistent heat and forecast rainfall could trigger glacial lake outburst floods, flash floods, and landslides across the country's mountainous north. Days earlier, an evacuation order was issued for residents near Pemberton, British Columbia, as a glacial lake threatens to burst for the third consecutive year. The parallel warnings underscore the growing dangers posed by accelerating glacier loss worldwide.cbc+2

Pakistan Braces for Outburst Floods

The NDMA alert, issued Saturday, identified Hunza, Nagar, Ghizer, Skardu, Shigar, Ghanche, Kharmang, Astore, Diamer, Upper and Lower Chitral, Swat, and adjoining areas as the most vulnerable regions. "The soaring temperatures across Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are expected to persist till the first week of July 2026," the authority said. The Pakistan Meteorological Department separately issued a GLOF alert for Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, advising local administrations to remain on high alert. The warnings come as Pakistan prepares for what may be its fourth consecutive year of severe monsoon conditions.arabnews+3

British Columbia's Place Glacier Lake

In southwestern British Columbia, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District ordered the evacuation of two dozen properties in the Poole Creek and Gates Lake area of Birken on Thursday after a lake beside Place Glacier reached 30 metres deep. The properties had been on evacuation alert since June 7, when the lake reached the same depth — 24 metres — at which an outburst event occurred the previous year. The glacier has been steadily melting into the adjacent lake, and regional officials expect the process to continue until the glacier recedes entirely.cbc

Record Glacier Loss Fuels Rising Danger

The flood threats are tied to broader patterns of ice loss. According to Brian Menounos, a professor at the University of Northern British Columbia, glaciers in Western Canada lost an estimated 30 gigatonnes of ice in 2025, marking the second-greatest annual loss on record. Since 2020, total ice volume in Western Canada and the conterminous United States has declined by 12 per cent. Globally, glaciers lost approximately 408 gigatonnes of ice in 2025, making it the sixth most severe year for ice depletion since 1975, according to research published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. An estimated 15 million people worldwide live downstream from glacial lakes, facing mounting flood risks as warming continues to destabilize ice masses.cbc+2