It rained in Greenland for the first time in 70 years: why it is a very worrying fact

In the middle of this month something happened unusual for climatic standards of Greenland, one of the coldest places in the world: it rained instead of snowing.

It may not seem like much, but it has not rained in the area since 1950 scientists are therefore genuinely concerned by the event. Even more concerning is the fact that the rain fell even at the highest point of the Greenland ice sheet, which has never seen rain in recorded history.

This is one more weather alert, so the expression “climate crisis“As exaggerated as it may sound to some.As human activity continues to warm the world, the ice caps are melting and what should be snow falls as rain. But why exactly did Greenland experience such record rainfall?

In mid-August 2021, scientists at the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station, located at the highest point of the Greenland ice cap, suddenly observed the summit region surrounded by rain, according to the National Science Center Snow and Ice Data. . The rain, which fell for a few hours, was the first documented rain in the region in history.

The location, which reaches approximately 3.2 kilometers (about 2 miles) high, not only did it rain, but the air reached above freezing temperatures for about nine hours, This is only the third time in the past decade that the station has measured temperatures above freezing.

So while it’s pretty obvious that global warming is a major factor here, What made the temperature rise so high there that it actually fell rain instead of snow for the first time?

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the “thaw event” that occurred August 14-16, 2021 was caused by a high atmospheric pressure south-eastern Greenland, combined with a strong low pressure center on Baffin Island, located in western Greenland. Both forces blew warm, humid air over Greenland, raising temperatures and turning snow into rain.

The data center added that on August 14 and 15, there was heavy precipitation and surface melt around the south-eastern coast of Greenland, which quickly spread to the summit region.

“What’s happening isn’t just a hot decade or two in a wandering weather pattern.”, said CNN scientist Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “This is unheard of”he added and said that The events of this month are scientific evidence of global warming in Greenland.

Thomas Mote, climatologist at the University of Georgia, agreed. As he said The New York Times, the increasing frequency of warming and melting in the Arctic is “Real evidence of climate change in Greenland”.

Rising temperatures, melting ice, rising sea levels and precipitation are more than just a sign of global warming in Greenland. In the recent UN IPCC Climate Report, scientists looked at the evidence for climate change in every region of the Earth. To prevent these changes from becoming irreversible, the commitments made by the main world governments to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions are becoming very relevant, commitments which according to these experts should be more drastic, firm and radical.

Read on: