After a Cold Spring, Greenland Melt Jumps

After one of the coldest springs in memory, Greenland jumps to a warm state.  Having shivered through the last few weeks of the cold snap, I’m a bit disappointed to miss the roaring melt that’s going on now.

Climate Central via Discovery:

It appears that Greenland’s melt season is making up for lost time.

Persistent high pressure has been camping over Greenland since mid-June. More recently, the weather pattern driving the European heat wave, dubbed an atmospheric shruggie  —  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — by Mashable’s Andrew Freedman (and an omega block by stodgy, old weather watchers), is also responsible for continuing to help keep Greenland warmer than normal.

The video below, taken during my approach to Ilulissat on May 29, shows how icy things still were in late may, early june, as do the stills from Ummannaq on this page.

The high temperatures in Europe have been more eye-popping, clearing 100°F from Spain to the Netherlands and setting an all-time July temperature record at London’s Heathrow Airport. But temperatures in the upper 30s and low 40s are still doing a number on Greenland’s ice sheet. Estimates from the National Snow and Ice Data Center indicate that roughly half the ice sheet’s surface is melting, well above the average of around 25 percent for this time of year.

In addition to warmer than normal temperatures, Greenland’s ice sheet has been getting steadily darker. This year currently ranks as the third-darkest on record for early July.

The darker the ice sheet is, the more incoming radiation from the sun is absorbed and the more it can melt. Water is darker than snow, but dust as well as soot from wildfires can also be swept up from far off locales and deposited on the ice sheet. It’s unclear if the wildfires currently raging in Alaska and Canada are having an impact.

 

I’ve been slow in getting these images processed and posted, but look for some more video and stills from DarkSnow 2015 in the coming week.