The same heat dome that roasted Europe and broke national temperature records in five countries last week has shifted to Greenland, where it is causing one of the biggest melt events ever observed on the fragile ice sheet.
By some measures, the ice melt is more extreme than during a benchmark record event in July 2012, according to scientists analyzing the latest data. During that event, about 98 percent of the ice sheet experienced some surface melting, speeding up the process of shedding ice into the ocean.
The fate of Greenland’s ice sheet is of critical importance to every coastal resident in the world, since Greenland is already the biggest contributor to modern-day sea level rise. The pace and extent of Greenland ice melt will help determine how high sea levels climb and how quickly.
As a result of both surface melting and a lack of snow on the ice sheet this summer, “this is the year Greenland is contributing most to sea level rise,” said Marco Tedesco, a climate scientist at Columbia University.
To illustrate the magnitude of ice contained in Greenland, consider that if the entire ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea levels by 23 feet. Scientists are using aircraft, field research, satellites and other tools to improve their understanding of how quickly ice is being lost.
Jason Box, a climate scientist who studies Greenland’s ice sheet, examined recent field data from two locations on the ice sheet, both of which showed more ice loss so far during this event than in 2012.
At one location, 75 miles east of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, the equivalent of 8.33 feet of water (2.54 meters) had melted as of July 31, slightly exceeding the value of 8.27 feet (2.52 meters) from 2012.
At another location 497 miles to the north, the equivalent of 7.38 feet (2.25 meters) of water had melted, topping the record of 6.30 feet (1.92 meters) in 2012. In an email, Box said the 2019 melt at this location is twice the average over the last decade.
The Danish Meteorological Institute tweeted that more than half the ice sheet experienced some degree of melting on Tuesday, according to a computer model simulation, which made it the “highest this year by some distance.”
But the peak of this melt event is likely still to come Wednesday or Thursday.
Xavier Fettweis, a climate scientist at University of Liège, tweeted that a computer simulation suggests the rate of melting will reach a maximum Thursday, which “could be the highest in Greenland history from 1950.”
Already this year, the ice sheet has endured exceptional melting. Between June 11 and 20, the ice sheet lost the equivalent of 80 billion tons of ice, the National Snow and Ice Data Center computed. Melting covered about 270,000 square miles, the most on record so early in the season. Temperatures leaped nearly 40 degrees above normal at the time.
The current record-setting heat dome parked over the ice sheet is bringing nearly cloudless skies and temperatures up to 30 degrees above average.
Even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather observatory located at the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station, the ice sheet’s highest elevation (10,551 feet), has exceeded the freezing point.
Christopher Shuman, a glaciologist at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said the temperature at Summit Station topped 32 degrees for at least eight hours Tuesday, exceeding the warmth during the 2012 melt event “in both magnitude and duration,” even surpassing 33.8 degrees (1 Celsius). The temperature may pass freezing yet again Wednesday and “we’ll get two straight days of substantial melt,” he said.
Article in Rolling Stone:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/greenland-ice-sheet-melt-865803/
Mentioned tweet in article:
https://twitter.com/IrinaOvereem/status/1156227258320732160
Wouldn’t it be nice if AGW were a hoax?
http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/images/greenland_daily_melt_plot_tmb.png
Good article in the Washington, on Post today – when we get these unusual heat domes, someone always points out a place experiencing a colder than usual event (we’ve seen it here recently on this very event). The Washington Weather Gang puts this in perspective.
“Earth’s temperatures are skewed hot. Expected cool weather in a few spots doesn’t change that.
If the climate was stable, the intensity of pools of cold and warm air would match. Because of the way the jet stream works, when it’s warm in one place, it’s necessarily cool somewhere else, and vice versa.
Like a seesaw, when the jet stream rides over a bulging dome of hot air, it then plunges south downwind, forming a pool of cold.
But while these cold waves do exist, they in no way disprove climate change. In fact, they are supposed to happen — it’s physics. Dismissing climate change because it’s cold somewhere is akin to claiming hunger isn’t a major problem because you had a big breakfast this morning.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/07/30/earths-temperatures-are-skewed-hot-expected-cool-weather-few-spots-doesnt-change-that/?utm_term=.7778c7e3f95c
This year’s Arctic Ice melt is already worse than it was in the same month, during the worst year ever (2012). Gawd help the Earth.
https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/
Temperature catching up with co2.
WHAT?
https://climate.nasa.gov/system/news_items/main_images/2893_Earth_temp_final_rev7-25-19.gif
Nope, Earth Isn’t Cooling
“Recovery!”
Yet another warning of our CO2 pollution: Let’s stop living in the past and consider the future.
UN chief: Data shows July equaled or surpassed hottest month
“If all nations don’t take action now to tackle climate change and global warming, extreme weather events happening now will be “just the tip of the iceberg.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-chief-july-equaled-surpassed-hottest.html
Neat tool and information from BBC Visual and Data Journalism team :
The world is getting hotter. July 2019 was one of the warmest months ever recorded – and July temperatures almost everywhere on Earth have been higher in the last 10 years compared with 1880-1900, as this globe shows. Scroll below to find out how the temperature in 1,000 major cities across the world has changed already and how much it could increase by in the coming years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-985b9374-596e-4ae6-aa04-7fbcae4cb7ee
Meanwhile more grim news from Siberia,
“Massive wildlife tragedy as bears and foxes flee taiga, while smaller animals suffocate in smoke: Predators seek food in villages all around Siberia as climate expert warns of worse fires each year due to soaring rise in temperatures, 10C above average.
Wild animals are turning to humans as they escape gas-chamber-like woods, with wildfires continuing to rage across almost 3 million hectares.
Even the Arctic is on fire, with smoke blanketing an area larger than the European Union, and a state of emergency declared in several large areas of Siberia.
And a dire warning has been sounded about a major change in climate in Siberia.
http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/others/news/massive-wildlife-tragedy-as-bears-and-foxes-flee-taiga-while-smaller-animals-suffocate-in-smoke/
And the rest of the world says—“NIMBY, so don’t bother me—–I’ve got to go shopping at the mall”