RAIN FALLS ON GREENLAND’S SUMMIT FOR THE FIRST TIME
WORDS BEN TURNER
Rain has fallen on the summit of Greenland’s ice sheet for the first time in recorded history, heightening concerns about the already-precarious condition of its ice. An unprecedented 6.3 billion tonnes of water pelted the ice sheet on 14 August, falling as rain and not snow for several hours. This was the third time temperatures at the summit had risen above freezing in less than a decade.
The rain occurred over two days and was also accompanied by the melting of up to 337,000 square miles of ice. “There is no previous report of rainfall at this location, which reaches 3,216 metres in elevation,” said National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) researchers, adding that the amount of ice lost in one day was the same as the average ice lost across a typical week for the same time of year.
The rainfall, which is the heaviest since records began, is a sure indication that Greenland is warming at a rapid pace. “What is going on is not simply a warm decade or two in a wandering climate pattern. This is unprecedented,” Ted Scambos, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, said. “We are crossing thresholds not seen in millennia, and frankly this is not going to change until we adjust what we’re doing to the air.” Scientists attribute the cause of the rainfall to an anticyclone above the island.