Walloped by heat wave, Greenland sees massive ice melt
Aug 1, 2019 | 9:43 AM
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BERLIN — The heat wave that smashed high temperature records in five European countries a week ago is now over Greenland, accelerating the melting of the island’s ice sheet and causing massive ice loss in the Arctic.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is a semi-autonomous Danish territory between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans that has 82% of its surface covered in ice. The area of the Greenland ice sheet that is showing indications of melt has been growing daily, and hit a record 56.5% for this year on Wednesday. That’s according to Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist with the Danish Meteorological Institute.
She says the ice melt area is expected to expand and peak on Thursday before cooler temperatures slow the pace.
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