A heat wave causes a “massive” ice melting event

A heat wave in Greenland, with temperatures above ten degrees Celsius, caused a melting event this week. “The biggestFrom the ice cap of Greenland, glaciers warned.

Since Wednesday, about 8 billion tons of ice covering the vast Arctic land has been melting every day, more than double the average rate over the summer, according to data from the Polar Portal, a modeling tool managed by Danish research institutes.

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According to the Danish Meteorological Agency DMI, local records, with unusual temperatures, were recently recorded in Greenland.

At the small Nerlerit Inat airport in northeastern Greenland, mercury reached 23.4 degrees on Thursday, the hottest level since weather station measurements began and the highest temperature ever recorded in Denmark.

This heat wave affected much of the vast Arctic, accelerating the melting of ice as a result.

By comparison, the amount of molten water released daily in recent days – 8,000 billion liters of fresh water – “It is sufficient to cover the entire surface of Florida with two inches of water», Emphasizes the polar portal.

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It heats up three times faster than the rest of the world

Greenland’s daily melting record has not been broken since the summer of 2019, but the site said the area of ​​icy melted Greenland is larger than it was two years ago.

The second glacier after Antarctica, covering an area of ​​nearly 1.8 million square kilometers, is of concern to scientists, including Greenland, where Arctic warming is three times faster than the rest of the world.

Its decline, which began decades ago, has accelerated since 1990 and continues.

According to a European study released in January, the melting of the Greenland icecape is expected to contribute to a general rise in sea level to 10 to 18 centimeters by 2100 or 60% faster than previously estimated.

The cap of Greenland is 6 to 7 meters high enough to raise the oceans.

According to the Polar Portal, the decline of snow cover in 2021 is within the historic average due to the relatively cold start to summer with snow and rain. The melting period lasts from June to early September.