Greenland's Melting: Heat Waves Are Changing the Landscape Before Their Eyes

The ice sheet is in the midst of one of its most extreme melts on record, with worrying consequences for Greenland's people and the planet.

Greenland, home to the world's second-largest ice sheet, has faced a summer of extreme heat.  It saw exceptionally high temperatures in July—and that was before a new heat wave arrived this week and pushed temperatures above freezing even at the research station at the very top of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Now, the same heat dome that cooked Europe is forecast to raise temperatures in Greenland into the 70s Fahrenheit on parts of the coast, and the ice sheet is in the midst of one of its most extreme melts on record, said Xavier Fettweis, a climate researcher at the University of Liège.  On July 30 and 31, more than half of the ice sheet had at least some melting at the surface, Denmark's research institutions reported on Polar Portal.   

"The current melt rate is equivalent to what the model projects for 2070, using the most pessimistic model," Fettweis said.  That melting has global implications—if Greenland's ice sheet were to melt entirely, it would result in about 20 feet of global sea level rise.

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