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Greenland's ice sheet just lost 11 billion tons of ice -- in
one day
By Mark Tutton, CNN
Updated 1310 GMT (2110 HKT) August 2, 2019
(CNN)After months of record temperatures, scientists say
Greenland's ice sheet experienced its biggest melt of the summer on Thursday,
losing 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean -- equivalent to 4.4 million
Olympic swimming pools.
Greenland's ice
sheet usually melts during the summer, but the melt season typically begins
around the end of May; this year it began at the start. It has been
melting "persistently" over the past four months, which have recorded
all time temperature highs, according to Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist with
Danish Meteorological Institute.
This July alone, Greenland's ice sheet lost 197 billion tons
of ice -- the equivalent of around 80 million Olympic swimming pools --
according to Mottram. She told CNN the expected average would be between 60-70
billion tons at this time of year.
The weather conditions that brought a heat wave to Europe
last week have reached the Arctic, where scientists say they could trigger one
of Greenland's biggest ice melts since 1950, when reliable records began.
Scientists recorded unconfirmed temperatures of 2.7C at
3,000 meters above sea level on Thursday, which would be close to a new record
if confirmed.
Record temperatures
It came on the same day as meteorologists reported that
globally, this July has been as hot as any month in recorded history.
Global average temperatures for July are on par with, and
possibly higher, than those of the current record holder, July 2016, according
to preliminary data for July 1-29 released by the Copernicus Climate Change
Programme, which analyzes temperature data from around the planet. The final
data will be released Monday.
Mottram said Greenland's warm weather is set to continue for
the next few days, perhaps longer. With the melt season typically lasting to
the end of August, she said the ice sheet is likely to see continued
substantial melting, although not necessarily as much as in recent weeks.
Greenland's ice sheet is the second biggest in the world and
this season's ice melt has already contributed around half a millimeter to
global sea levels.
'Unprecedented' wildfires ravage the Arctic
It comes in a summer where the Arctic has experienced
"unprecedented" wildfires, which scientists say have been facilitated
by high temperatures.
Since the start of June, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring
Service (CAMS), has tracked more than 100 intense wildfires in the Arctic
Circle.
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at a faster rate than
the global average, providing the right conditions for wildfires to spread,
Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range
Weather Forecasts (ECWMF), told CNN last week.
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