Rain Fell On The Peak Of Greenland's Ice Sheet For The First Time In Recorded History

2024-12-25 08:56:53 source:lotradecoin comparison category:News

Greenland saw rain at the highest point of its ice sheet for the first time since scientists have been making observations there, the latest signal of how climate change is affecting every part of the planet.

According to the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center, rain fell for several hours on an area 10,551 feet in elevation on Aug. 14, an unprecedented occurrence for a location that rarely sees temperatures above freezing.

It was also the latest date in the year scientists had ever recorded above-freezing temperatures at the National Science Foundation's Summit Station.

The rainfall coincided with the ice sheet's most recent "melt event," in which temperatures get high enough that the thick ice begins to melt.

Rising global temperatures driven by climate change have made extreme weather events more common. The Greenland Ice Sheet is no exception.

There were two major melt events there in July. Scientists also recorded melt events on the ice sheet in 2019, 2012, and 1995. Before then, "melting is inferred from ice cores to have been absent since an event in the late 1800s," the center said.

The melting event that occurred during the August rain mirrored those that took place in July, which came about after "a strong low pressure center over Baffin Island and high air pressure southeast of Greenland" pushed warm air and moisture north, the scientists said.

Greenland's ice sheet — one of just two on Earth, the other in Antarctica — is about 656,000 square miles of glacial land ice, blanketing the majority of the country.

The Arctic region is warming twice as quickly as the rest of the planet under climate change. Global average temperatures have risen about 1 degree Celsius, or almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit, since the growth of industrialization and fossil fuel use in the mid-19th century. The Arctic region has warmed by almost 2 degrees Celsius so far.

Because of hotter global temperatures, Greenland and Antarctica lost enough ice over the last 16 years to fill all of Lake Michigan, a 2020 study found. The melting has implications for people far from Greenland. The ice loss is helping drive sea level rise, threatening coastal communities around the world with flooding.

More:News

Recommend

Taylor Swift makes history as most decorated artist at Billboard Music Awards

Taylor Swift celebrated the eve of her 35th birthday by making history at the Billboard Music Awards

Powerball winning numbers from Oct. 23 drawing: Jackpot now at $100 million

The Powerball jackpot is set to $100 million after Monday night's drawing failed to produce a winner

NASA's Dragonfly preparing to fly through atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan

NASA is preparing for its next mission: flying through the atmosphere of one of Saturn's moons.The s