Climate change effect: Rain on Greenland ice sheet, possibly for first time alarm climate scientists

Climate change has become one of the main concerning issues of this century. In a new, rains fell at the highest point on Greenland's ice sheet, possibly for the first time on August 14. Danish scientists on Monday attributed climate change as the most likely reason behind this.

The US Snow and Ice Data Centre reported that the rain was observed for several hours on the above-mentioned date at a measuring post more than 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) up on the sheet. This is alarming as it clearly signals the climate change effect.

Weather experts say that the temperatures must be above or just slightly below zero degrees centigrade for rains to fall. And with rains at the highest point on Greenland's ice sheet, the risk of rising temperatures pose to the world's second-largest ice sheet after Antarctica.

"This is an extreme event as it may never have happened before," Martin Stendel, a researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute, told AFP. "It's probable that this is a sign of global warming." Temperatures have risen above freezing at the peak of the sheet only nine times in the past 2,000 years, he added.

The alarming part is that three of those events have taken place in the past 10 years, but on the previous two occasions, in 2012 and 2019, there was no rain, Martin Stendel said. "We cannot prove whether it rained or not at the six occasions before but it's very unlikely, which makes the rainfall we observed even more remarkable," Stendel said.

Cause and effects of rains on Greenland's ice sheet

The rain comes after a very hot summer when northern Greenland experienced record-setting temperatures of more than 20 degrees.

This heatwave during the summers has seen the rate of melting of the ice sheet accelerate further.

Scientists are particularly worried because of this melting as warming in the Arctic is faster than the global average.

The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is expected to contribute to the overall rise in sea levels by 10 to 18 centimetres by 2100.

According to a European study published in January this year, this rise in sea levels is 60% faster than the previous estimate.

(With Agency Inputs)