Rain fell on Greenland's summit for the first time ever in recorded history, raising concerns about its already fragile ice.
Unprecedented 7 billion tons (6.3 million metric tons) water fell on the ice sheet last Saturday, August 14, and lasted several hours as rain rather than snow. According to the National Science Foundation's Summit Station recordings, this was the third time summit temperatures had exceeded freezing in less than 10 years.
According to the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center, (NSIDC), the rain fell over two days, from Aug. 14 through Aug. 15. It was also accompanied with the melting of as much as 337,000 square miles (872,000 km) of ice.
"There has been no rainfall reported at this elevation, which reaches 3,216m (10,551ft)," NSIDC researchers stated in a statement. They also added that the amount of ice that was lost in one day was equal to the average ice loss over a week during the same time period.
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According to Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at Colorado Boulder, the heavy rainfall is an indication that Greenland's temperature is rising rapidly.
"What's happening is more than a warm decade or two in an unpredictable climate pattern. Scambos stated that this is unprecedented. "We are crossing thresholds that have not been seen in millennia. And frankly, this is not going change until we adjust how we're doing with the air."
The 2021 year has been a worrying one for the huge ice sheet which, together with the Antarctic ice sheets, makes up 91% of the Earth's freshwater resources. Live Science reported that researchers had warned Greenland's melting ice sheet was on the verge of a tipping point in February. This could lead to large portions of it melting without any further global temperature increases. Live Science previously reported that the ice sheet experienced a major melting event in July. It lost 9.37 billion tonnes (8.5 billion metric tons of ice) per day, twice the normal rate of summer loss.
According to an NSIDC estimation, global sea levels would rise approximately 20 feet (6 m), if all Greenland's ice melts.
Scientists attribute the rain to an atmospheric phenomenon, known as an anticyclone. Anticyclones are areas of high pressure where air sinks, warming as it falls. These anticyclone conditions allow hot weather to remain in one place for long periods, creating heat waves.
This month, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a landmark report warning that Earth could reach the critical threshold for 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degree Fahrenheit) warming from climate change in the next 20 years.
Antnio Guterres from the U.N. described this report as a "code Red for humanity" and warned that extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, and floods would become more frequent as the planet heats.
Original publication on Live Science
