Researchers have found that the Island’s ice sheet has lost more than two gigatonnes (a
gigaton is equal to one billion tonnes) of ice in just a day on June 13 to a widespread melting event. This
is a sign that 2019 could once again set records for loss in Greenland ice.
The Danish Meteorological Institute, the
Greenland melting season started very early this year on April 30. This
is the second earliest in a record that stretches back to 1980. This year’s
start of April 30 is second only to 2016, when a very unusual weather pattern
caused an early start to the melting season in mid-April.
Number three on the list is May 2, 2010,
when a similar weather pattern triggered an early melting onset closely
followed by May 7
in 2017. The top four have all occurred within the last 10
years.
Reason
for Melting:
The researchers found that the Greenland melting
event was due to an atmospheric circulation in theArctic and North Atlantic. The
sudden spike in melting can be compared to some spikes seen seven years ago. Melting
off early in the season leads to further ice loss later in the season. The
reason why melting has spiked in 2019 is that Greenland experienced a dry and cold winter.
