The warming and melting of Greenland, in fact, of the whole Arctic, is progressing much more rapidly than the scientists predicted. Evidence from the ice cores and ground underneath the ice show that in the past there was major ice loss at lower GHG levels than we have today. And as the warming Arctic makes the jet stream Rossby waves more extreme, southern areas are seeing colder winter storms, while the Arctic sees brief periods of above freezing temperatures in the dead of winter.
"A rapidly warming Arctic that feels unfamiliar even to experts
The changes in Greenland are part of a broader pattern across the Arctic, where warming is proceeding at roughly four times the global average. Long term assessments like the annual
Arctic Report Card have documented how sea ice, snow cover, and permafrost are all shifting in ways that would have been hard to imagine a generation ago. One recent installment described how the region now looks dramatically different than it did 20 years ago, noting that it is the continuation of a long term pattern and that the
Arctic has shifted into a new state of being. That new state includes more rain on snow, more open water in autumn, and more frequent episodes of extreme warmth.
Some of those extremes have stunned even veteran researchers. Earlier this month, temperatures near the North Pole spiked more than
36°F above average, briefly pushing conditions above the melting point in the heart of winter. Scientists who work in Svalbard, Norway, in the high Arctic have described how the signs of rapid climate change are unmistakable, as documented in a detailed
Transcript of their observations. When I hear glaciologists and sea ice experts say that the Arctic they study today barely resembles the one they first encountered in their careers, it becomes clear why the word “terrifying” is no longer considered hyperbole."
