Thursday proved to be the hottest day for Greenland that experienced the biggest melt of the summer losing 11 billion tonnes of surface ice to the ocean. It is equivalent to around 4.4 million Olympic swimming pools.

An overview of Greenland’s ice melt

Hot summer melts ice but in Greenland it starts around the end of May. But this year, it started early at the start of May and is continuously melting since then. Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist with Danish Meteorological Institute, attributes the high melting to all time high temperature.

Mottram told CNN that Greenland lost 197 billion tonnes of ice this July alone. The loss is equivalent to approximately 80 million Olympic swimming pools. But the expected average of ice-melt this time of the year is 60-70 billion tonnes, maintained Mottram.

Reason for ice melt

The heat wave prevailing in Europe has reached the Arctic and could trigger ice melts that could be one of the biggest since 1950, according to meteorological scientists. They are waiting for reliable records to confirm the ice-melt. Meanwhile, an unconfirmed source claimed a temperature of 2.7C … Read the rest