- Greenland’s highest point rained instead of snow for the first time on record.
- A research scientist told the Insider summit that rainfall at the Insider summit could magnify Greenland’s contribution to sea level rise.
- A study found that rising sea levels threaten hundreds of millions of people on global coastlines.
- For more stories, please visit Business Insider.
According to reports, it rained instead of snow on the summit of Greenland on Saturday, for the first time on record. National Ice and Snow Data Center At the University of Colorado Boulder.
The top of the mountain, about two miles above sea level, marks the highest point of the Greenland Ice Sheet. According to NSIDC, several hours of rain were observed on the top of the mountain on August 14 and temperatures above freezing were also recorded, which lasted about 9 hours.
This is the third time in less than ten years that temperatures above freezing and wet snow have been recorded there. According to NSIDC data, a total of about 7 billion tons of rain fell on Greenland’s ice sheet.
Lawrence C. Smith, a climate scientist and professor at Brown University, called the rainfall at the summit “shocking” in an email to Insider. He said that “this indicates that there will be greater meltwater runoff in the future”, which will “enlarge the melting of Greenland and its contribution to global sea level rise”.
Greenland is the largest ice block in the northern hemisphere, losing more than 530 billion tons of ice in 2019.In two days last month, Greenland alone melted enough ice Covers the entire surface area of Florida In 4 inches of water.
The National Science Foundation Greenland Summit Station was established in 1989 and is staffed throughout the year to observe conditions in the Arctic, including variables related to climate change.
Julienne Stroeve, a research scientist at NSIDC, told Insider that rainfall at the summit station may be indicative of what will happen elsewhere, and pointed out that the Arctic is melting three times faster than the rest of the planet.
Stroeve said that the most recent model was published in the long-awaited United Nations Climate Report It shows that greenhouse gas emissions will not only increase precipitation in the Arctic, but more precipitation will fall in the form of rainfall.
“The transition from the snow-dominated Arctic to the rain-dominated Arctic [is] It is expected to be decades earlier than previous predictions,” she said.
As the climate warms, precipitation and melt water flowing from ice and glaciers increase, causing sea levels to rise.
A 2019 study estimated that there are hundreds of millions of people on coastlines around the world Threatened by rising sea levelsIt is estimated that some American cities, including New Orleans and Miami, May be underwater by 2100.
Stroeve said that in addition to rising sea levels, rainfall instead of snow can also cause problems for wildlife. She said that animals such as reindeer and musk ox cannot break through the resulting ice, making it more difficult for them to find food.
