Greenland’s ice layer melted 17 times faster than the last average during a May heat wave that also arrived in Iceland, the World Meteorological Attribution of the Scientific Network (WWA) said on Wednesday in a report.
The Arctic region is in the first line of global warming, heating four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in Scientific Journal Nature.
“The melting rate of the Greenland ice layer, of a preliminary analysis, a factor of 17 … means that the contribution of the Greenland ice layer to the increase in sea level is higher than it would have been without this heat wave”, one of the authors of the report, Friederike Otto, associated professor in climatic sciences at the London College of the College of the Imperviers, said Perseters.
“Without climate change, this would have been impossible,” he said.
In Iceland, the temperature exceeded 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) on May 15, unprecedented for that time of the year on the Subrotic Island.
“Temperatures on Iceland, as observed, this can break records, more than 13 degrees Celsius hottest than the 1991-2020 average can the maximum daily temperatures,” said the WWA.
In May, 94 percent of Iceland’s weather stations recorded record temperatures, according to the country’s weather institute. In East Greenland, the hottest day during the heat wave was approximately 3.9 ° C warmer compared to the pre -industrial climate, said the WWA.
“While a heat wave that is around 20 ° C might not seem like an extreme event of the experience of most people around the world, it is really a big problem for this part of the world,” said Otto.
“It affects the whole world massively,” he said.
According to WWA, the maximum records observed in Iceland and Greenland this could happen again every 100 years.
For the indigenous communities of Greenland, the warmest temperatures and the melted ice affect their ability to hunt on the ice, which represents a threat to their livelihood and the traditional way of life.
The changes also affect infrastructure in the two countries.
“In Greenland and Iceland, the infrastructure is built for cold weather, which means that during a meter meter of the heat wave can cause floods and damage roads and infrastructure,” said the WWA.
