There’s a ritual that every regular visitor to Morzine knows well. You step out onto the balcony on a July morning, coffee in hand, squint up at the Pleney, and try to read the sky. Blue and settled? Get the bikes out. Bruised and purple above the Col de Joux Plane? Pack a rain jacket.
Mountain weather has always been a game of instinct and experience rather than simply checking your favourite forecasting app. Yet times are changing. The summers are hotter. The storms are sharper. And the glaciers further afield that once defined the skyline of the broader Alps are retreating at a pace that would have seemed extraordinary a generation ago.
What ‘Normal’ Looks Like
You’re reading this magazine at around 1,000 metres above sea level in the Chablais region of the Northern Alps, giving Morzine and the surrounding valley a climate unlike anywhere else in France. Summers here feel genuinely alpine; they’re warm in the valley, refreshingly cool higher up, and always with the possibility of an afternoon thunderstorm rolling in from the direction of Lake Geneva. July is the warmest and sunniest month, with daytime temperatures around 21°C, close to 275 hours of sunshine, and nights that stay cool at around 10°C. September is historically the driest month and the sweet spot for settled weather.
Lake Geneva plays a fascinating role in all of this. In summer, evaporation from the lake fuels the formation of cumulonimbus clouds and drives those spectacular afternoon storms that send mountain bikers sprinting for the gondola and family hikers for shelter under the trees. The pattern is familiar, but it is changing.
The Heat Is On
The European Alps are warming faster than almost anywhere else on the continent. While France as a whole saw temperatures rise by around 1.4°C over the twentieth century, the Alps have warmed by approximately 2°C over the same period. Europe is now warming at roughly double the global average rate, and the trajectory is accelerating.
The consequences in summer are already tangible. Heatwaves that once felt exceptional are becoming routine. The years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023 all broke records across Europe. Scientists warn that by 2100, every second summer could be as extreme as the 2003 European heatwave, the hottest since 1540. The European State of the Climate report for 2025 confirmed that at least 95% of Europe experienced above-average annual temperatures last year. For mountain communities like ours, the heat is no longer a lowland problem that stays in Geneva or Lyon. It follows you up the valley.
A Story Written in Ice
Nowhere is the transformation more visible than in the fate of the glaciers. Alpine glaciers have lost roughly half their total volume since 1900, with 20% of that loss occurring since 1980 alone. Between 2000 and 2023, glacier volume across the Alps fell by nearly 39%. The Mer de Glace, France’s largest glacier, tells the story most starkly. When the Montenvers Hotel was built in 1880, guests could step directly from the building onto the ice. Today, the glacier retreats at around 4 metres per year, and a gondola and a long staircase are required just to reach it. The glaciers of the Mont Blanc massif, often visible on clear days from higher points around the Portes du Soleil, tell the same story. Research projects that summer river runoff downstream of Mont Blanc could decrease by around 40% by 2100 as glacial meltwater diminishes. The landscape we love is in motion.
Wetter, Wilder, Harder to Predict
Warming doesn’t simply mean drier summers. Morzine is already a relatively wet place, with annual precipitation averaging around 1,800mm. As temperatures rise, the atmosphere holds more moisture, and when storms arrive, they tend to hit harder. There is increasing evidence of more intense precipitation events across the Alps, with storms that dump large quantities of rain in short windows, raising risks of flash flooding on the steep terrain above the valley. For hikers, mountain bikers and trail runners, reading the sky remains as essential as ever, and perhaps even more so. The window of settled weather can be glorious. But the transition from blue to black can happen faster than it used to.
Why the Alps Are Having a Moment
Here’s the thing: as the Mediterranean bakes, the French Alps are looking better than ever as a summer destination. While the coasts of Spain, Italy, and southern France increasingly endure suffocating heat with temperatures regularly exceeding 38°C or higher in July and August, Morzine and the surrounding valley stays reliably pleasant. Daytime highs of 21°C in the village, cool mountain breezes above 1,500 metres, and those refreshing nights that actually let you sleep. For families, cyclists, hikers, and anyone who wants sunshine without the swelter, that is an increasingly powerful draw.
The trails above the villages to the Lac de Mines d’Or, across to the Col de Bassachaux, up toward the Hauts Forts are as spectacular as they have ever been. The valley receives around 2,700 hours of sunshine annually. The food, the rivers, the wildflower meadows, none of that is going anywhere. If anything, the shifting climate is accelerating a recognition that was already building — that an alpine summer is not a compromise on a beach holiday, but something genuinely its own. It’s cooler, wilder, and more beautiful for it. The sky above Morzine is changing. But right now, it remains one of the best skies in Europe to be under in summer.
