No one knows when it last rained in this remote part of the earth.

Because it is located at an altitude of 3,216 m in the Arctic, the summit of Greenland usually does not provide the atmospheric atmosphere to create the atmosphere, as temperatures freeze almost all the time.

For this reason, what happened on August 14 surprised researchers at the Summit Station from the National Science Foundation, the US agency that monitors this part of the planet.

It rained for “hours”, According to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). According to scientist Martin Stendell, who shared information on his social networks, nothing similar has been observed since 1987, when documents began to be produced.

According to the report, “the air temperature remained above zero for nine hours”. The increase in thermometers created defrost conditions that were previously seen only in three cases: 1995, 2012, and 2019.

According to experts, this is another example of how global warming is affecting remote areas, such as Greenland.

“This is not a healthy sign of an iceberg,” said Indrani Das, a glaciologist at Reuters’ news agency at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

“Bad ice water … increases the chances of the mantle melting on the surface.”

‘It rained all day’

Although it often rains on the frozen surface of Greenland, this phenomenon has never been observed at its highest point.

At the research center, scientists were surprised to see water droplets flowing through the lodge’s windows – they shared pictures on social networks.

We do not have direct observations from the summit, but this map shows the type of rainfall that is a joint venture in the climate model Harmony. dmidk And @Vedurstofan. Green: Rain, Pink: Snow, Blue: Frost in Iceland. So there may be rain at or near the summit. https://t.co/v0Mj1qz1Bh pic.twitter.com/PzoTAcFFLc

– Martin Stendel (MartinStendel) August 19, 2021

“On Saturday, it basically rained every day, and the team monitored the weather every hour,” engineer So Corville told the Washington Post.

“This is the first time you’ve seen it at the station.”

The temperature reached 0.48 degrees Celsius – the fourth in the last 25 years.

According to NSIDC data, the thermometers remained above 0 C for hours, creating conditions for melt on the surface and around the peak, along with rain.

In total, melting on the 14th reached 872,000 square kilometers.

“In 2012 and 2021 alone, there was an 800,000 sq km melting program,” the NSIDC report highlights.

Steve Tarton, an environmental geographer at the Central University of Queensland in Australia, explains that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as other parts of the planet due to climate change. In an article on the Conversation website.

While the temperature in other parts of the planet increased by an average of 1 C, in this region this rate reached about 2 C.

“This worrying rain over Greenland is not an isolated incident,” said NSIDC scientist Twila Moon.

Along with floods, fires, and other extreme events, it is one of the many “red flags” that point to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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