Greenland’s vast ice sheet began melting faster and earlier this year aided by record-breaking warm weather, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute.
Around 12% of the ice sheet starting melting a month earlier than had been the case in earlier years.
Spring temperatures broke records at nearly half (six out of 14) weather stations
The trend continued during the summer, with the average temperature then reaching 8.2C (46.8F) on Greenland’s southeast coast.
This was the highest temperature recorded since record taking began in 1895 and was 2.3C above the average for the years between 1981 and 2010.
Temperatures were also at new highs in the south of the island and in the northeast.
NASA has announced that it is sending science flights over Greenland to investigate and measure the impact of the summer melt on the ice sheet.
Consistently hotter temperatures for more than a decade have resulted in greater thinning and melting of global sea ice. Scientists at NASA had called the reduced ice level the “new normal”.
"These new results give us new and robust evidence of the tendency of warmer temperatures in the Arctic continuing," the Danish Meteorological Institute said in a statement.
The Greenland ice sheet has the potential to be a massive contributor to rising sea levels. Even an increase of two degrees could cause most of the ice sheet to melt. The runoff of fresh water would impact on most, if not every, coastal cities and towns in the world.
Greenland is an autonomous country administered by Denmark. It is the world’s largest island but the world’s least densely populated country. About 75% of its surface is covered by the ice sheet.
