Greenland is experiencing a REALLY early melt
KMSP - With summer now fast approaching and the Northern Hemisphere warming quickly, it shouldn’t be any surprise that snow is melting QUICKLY in many areas that still have some. One such location is Greenland where 80% of the island is still locked in glaciers. The country is one of the coldest places on the planet, but Mother Nature turned up the heat over the last few weeks because it is melting way sooner than it should be this year.
While melting typically begins in May on a small piece of the country, much of the island has already been subject to temperatures that have soured above freezing, with some areas actually cracking 50. This is not only unusual, but has not happened since satellite records began, and quite likely hasn’t happened in centuries. While 30 and 40 degree temps don’t sound like that big of a deal, we are talking about an area of the world where subzero temperatures are commonplace all the way into May. It would be like Minnesota hitting 70 degrees in the middle of January.
This year, it was a combination of perfect wind conditions and rainfall that contributed to the “mild” temps and the melting event across much of the country. And now as we head into the warmest time of the year, the melting will continue to grow until the peak is reached, which is usually sometime in July.