Climate change: It rains for the first time on top of Greenland | Experts warn of global warming

in the frame climate crisis Affecting the world, an unprecedented event occurred on August 14 when Researchers recorded the presence of rain at the top of Greenland, Located at an altitude of 3,216 metres, it is a place where the weather conditions are never available to generate precipitation and sub-zero temperatures (almost) all the time.

According to the records of the US National Snow and Snow Data Center (NSIDC), on that day There was rain “for several hours” And that was something never had Happened since there are logs.

In addition, the report noted that “the air temperature remained above freezing for about nine hours,” resulting in a cooler weather. Melting snow which have only been seen in three years: 1995, 2012 and 2019.

“This is not a healthy sign of an ice cap.”said Indrani Das, a glaciologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He added, “The water on the ice is bad…it increases the likelihood of the ice sheet melting on the surface.”

Although it rains often on the frozen surface of Greenland, this phenomenon has never been seen like August 14 before. At the summit research station, drops were observed on the windows, astonishing scientists.

It is the fourth time in the past 25 years that the temperature has exceeded freezing, so much so that the thermometer at one point reached 0.48 degrees Celsius. For several hours it remained above 0 ° C, which, along with rain, created conditions for Solubility on the surface of the summit and the surrounding area.

At its peak, melting involved 872,000 square kilometers. The NSIDC noted that “2012 and 2021 alone had more than 800,000 square kilometers of a melt event.”

The effect of climate change over time

Since this phenomenon has been measured, the data only shows another melting event in the 1880s, so the presence of four events in the past three decades may be a sign of how the climate is changing globally.

Steve Turton, an environmental geographer at the University of Central Queensland in Australia, detailed in an article on the site ConversationThe Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet due to climate change.

While the rest of the planet has warmed by 1°C on average, in the Arctic it has reached nearly 2°C so far.

“This alarming rain on top of Greenland It is not an isolated eventTwila Moon, a scientist at NSIDC, added that along with an increase in floods, fires and other extreme events, this is one of many “red flags” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.