A 'Not Normal' Amount Of Greenland's Ice Melted Last Weekend
Climate Nexus Hot News Summary: So much ice melted in northern Greenland last weekend that the newly melted water could cover the entire state of West Virginia with one foot of water. Yes, you read that correctly. Even given the increasingly rapid melting of Greenland Ice, the 6 billion tons of water that melted each day July 15–17 is "not normal," according to Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, told CNN. While the UK and continental Europe sweltered under deadly heat, Kutalmis Saylam, a Univ. of Texas research scientist stationed in Greenland said, "It definitely worries me … yesterday we could wander around in our t-shirts." Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels is accelerating glacier and sea ice melt (in Greenland and elsewhere) and scientists are continuing to discover new mechanisms for ice loss that are increasing sea level rise dangers beyond what was previously predicted. "The chance of temperatures getting this hot is clearly linked to global warming," Univ. of Copenhagen climate scientist Aslak Grinsted told CNN.
Climate Signals Background: Glacier and ice sheet melt, Sea level rise, Sea ice decline, Arctic amplification
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