Climate change: It rains for the first time on the summit of Greenland | Experts warn of global warming

Within the framework of climate crisis affecting the world, an unprecedented event took place on August 14 when the researchers recorded the presence of rains at the top of Greenland, located at 3,216 meters above sea level, a place that never has the atmospheric conditions to generate precipitation and with temperatures below zero (almost) all the time.

According to the records of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in the United States, on this day it rained “for several hours” and it was something that never had It happened because there are records.

Additionally, the report noted that “the air temperature has remained above freezing for about nine hours,” creating cold conditions. melt of ice which have only been seen for three years before: 1995, 2012 and 2019.

“This is not a healthy sign for an ice cap.”said Indrani Das, glaciologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. He added: “The water on the ice is bad… It makes the ice sheet more likely to melt to the surface.”

While it rains often on the frozen surface of Greenland, the phenomenon has never been seen like on August 14th before. At the summit research station, drops were seen on the windows, surprising scientists.

This is the fourth time in 25 years that the temperature has exceeded the freezing point, so much so that at one point the thermometer reached 0.48 ° Celsius. For several hours, it remained above 0 ° C, which, combined with the rain, created conditions for the melt to the surface of the summit and surrounding areas.

At its peak, the cast encompassed 872,000 square kilometers. “2012 and 2021 alone saw more than one 800,000 square kilometer melt event,” the NSIDC noted.

The impact of climate change over time

Since the phenomenon was measured, the data shows only one more melting event in the 1880s, so having four in the past three decades could be a sign of how the climate is changing globally. .

Steve Turton, a researcher in environmental geography at Central Queensland University in Australia, detailed in an article on The Conversation that the Arctic region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet due to climate change.

While on the rest of the planet the temperature has increased by 1 ° C on average, in the Arctic region it has so far reached almost 2 ° C.

“This alarming rain on the summit of Greenland not an isolated event“added Twila Moon, an NSIDC scientist, who warned that with increasing flooding, fires and other extreme events, this is one of many” red flags “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.