New data shows that the Greenland ice sheet is in the midst of its largest melt season in recorded history, despite an ongoing heat wave. It's the most recent alarming indication that climate change is accelerating much faster than even climate scientists had anticipated.
The extremely vulnerable Greenland ice sheet has been traversed by the record-breaking heat wave that scorched northern Europe last week, resulting in temperatures this week that are up to 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual.
A weather balloon that was deployed close to the capital Nuuk recorded record temperatures just above the surface on Tuesday, according to weather models that suggest the temperature may have exceeded 75 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas of Greenland. The heat wave is likely to reach its height on Thursday with the largest single-day melt in Greenland ever. Global sea levels will be irreversibly raised as a result of the permanent loss of more than 12 billion tonnes of water from the ice sheet on August 1.
The official weather service of Greenland, the Danish Meteorological Institute, reported in a tweet that "nearly of the ice sheet, including Summit," noticeably melted on Tuesday. The ice sheet's surface was estimated to have melted by 87 per cent, making that day the second-largest melt day in Greenland's recorded history. The temperature did indeed momentarily surpass the melting point, according to separate weather monitoring equipment at Summit Camp at the summit of the 10,000-foot-thick Greenland ice sheet.
Massive waterfalls of meltwater could be observed gushing precipitously downhill from the ice sheet's edge. Irina Overeem, a climate scientist who eight years ago set up a meltwater monitoring station in western Greenland, captured a spectacular video of a raging torrent of water. She wrote, "I have my fingers crossed for it not being swept away," in a tweet. Overeem characterized the current way of life in Greenland in an email to Rolling Stone: After she finished filming, she noticed a notice about the significant glacier water flow on the notice board of the largest store in the capital city. In 2012, a comparable glacial flood was so severe that it wiped down a bridge.
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