Ice on the tops - but for how long?

This image depicts a view of the central Southern Alps, New Zealand, with its highest peak Aoraki/Mount Cook visible in the centre of the photo and Hooker and Tasman Glaciers to its left and right, respectively. The "wall" of clouds in the background is heralding a front moving in from the West nourishing the existing snow field and glaciers. The future of many of those smaller glaciers and snow patches is, however, uncertain as the global trend of vanishing ice and snow in mountain areas is also affecting the Southern Alps.