Rain at the summit of Greenland
Source: National Snow & Ice Data Center
Rain at the summit of Greenland
August 18, 2021
On August 14, 2021, rain was observed at the highest point on the Greenland Ice Sheet for several hours, and air temperatures remained above freezing for about nine hours. This was the third time in less than a decade, and the latest date in the year on record, that the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station had above-freezing temperatures and wet snow. There is no previous report of rainfall at this location (72.58°N 38.46°W), which reaches 3,216 meters (10,551 feet) in elevation. Earlier melt events in the instrumental record occurred in 1995, 2012, and 2019; prior to those events, melting is inferred from ice cores to have been absent since an event in the late 1800s. The cause of the melting event that took place from August 14 to 16, 2021, was similar to the events that occurred this late July, where a strong low pressure center over Baffin Island and high air pressure southeast of Greenland conspired to push warm air and moisture rapidly from the south.
Widespread surface melting and an extensive rainfall event along the southeast coast extending up to the Summit region of Greenland occurred on August 14 and 15, with melt area returning to moderate levels on August 16 (Figure 1a). Melt extent peaked at 872,000 square kilometers (337,000 square miles)on August 14, dropping to 754,000 square kilometers on the 15 and 512,000 square kilometers (198,000 square miles) on August 16. Only 2012 and 2021 have had more than one melt event of 800,000 square kilometers (309,000 square miles) in extent, and the August 14 event was the latest date for this scale of melt extent in the satellite record.
Temperatures surpassed the freezing point at Summit Station around 0700 UTC (5:00 am local time) on August 14, and the rain event began at the same time (Figure 1b). For the next several hours, rain fell and water droplets were seen on surfaces near the camp as reported by on-station observers. At about 1400 UTC the snow surface began to form thin sheets of ice crystals as the rain froze into the snow. Winds were 9.8 meters per second (22 miles per hour) from the southwest with a mix of freezing and non-freezing rain. Temperatures peaked at 0.48 degrees Celsius (33 degrees Fahrenheit) around 10:40 UTC and dropped below freezing around 16:20 UTC. Temperatures fell steadily through the evening. As skies cleared late in the evening, a sharp cooling brought temperatures to -8.5 degrees Celsius (16.7 degrees Fahrenheit) early on August 15 (Figure 2). Temperatures at Summit did not reach the melting point on August 15 or 16.
The total aerial extent of surface melting (total melt-day extent) for 2021 through August 16 is 21.3 million square kilometers (8.2 million square miles), tied for the fourteenth highest total to date, and well above the 1981 to 2010 average of 18.6 million square kilometers (7.2 million square miles).
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Read more: https://nsidc.org/greenland-today/2021/08/rain-at-the-summit-of-greenland/