Warning of unprecedented rain on a glacier in Greenland

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“Rain can only fall if the temperature is above or slightly below 0 ºC. So this is an extreme situation, as it may never have happened before.Martin Stendel, researcher at DMI, told AFP.

Stendel said that “it is probably a sign of global warming“.

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Temperatures were just above 0 ° C, meaning that snow melts and refreezes to become ice.

This phenomenon only occurred nine times in the past 2,000 years, three of which have taken place in the past ten years (2012, 2019 and 2021), but in 2012 and 2019 it did not rain, the expert said.

This rain event occurs when unusual temperatures of over 20 degrees in northern Greenland during the summer, that accelerates the rate of melting of the ice cap.

“We cannot prove that it has rained or not the previous six times, but it is highly unlikely, which makes the observed rains even more remarkable,” said the researcher.

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