Publication Date June 12, 2016 | Discover Magazine

Record temps cause surface melting in Greenland to explode

Greenland
Numerous melt ponds are visible in this image of Greenland’s southwest coast, captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 12, 2016. The grayish-blue band also is indicative of melting at the surface. Photo: NASA EOSDIS
Numerous melt ponds are visible in this image of Greenland’s southwest coast, captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 12, 2016. The grayish-blue band also is indicative of melting at the surface. Photo: NASA EOSDIS

The graph [below] tells the tale: a spike in melting far in excess of the average melt percentage for this time of year, following on from two earlier spikes in May and April.

It has already been an extraordinary melt season in Greenland — one that began very early...

The second spike was even bigger, prompting Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center to say that “the Arctic is going to go through hell this year.”

Now, we’ve got a third melting spike that blows the others right out of the water.

Overall, what’s happening in Greenland looks very similar to what occurred in 2012, when surface melting during the warm season was far in excess of any earlier year in the satellite record, which dates to 1979

It’s no secret why snow and ice is melting at such a rapid clip in Greenland right now: soaring temperatures — and not just in Greenland but throughout the Arctic...

Last Thursday (June 9), temperatures in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, reached 75 degrees F. That was the the warmest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic country during June