Significant melting expected in Greenland

A second heating event and significant melt is predicted for Greenland during the first week of July. This melting will be felt especially across the northeastern part of the ice sheet and is expected to be associated with remarkable meltwater runoff as a result of coming on the back of the season’s first major melt just a few days ago.

On June 26, we forecasted an extensive melt for Greenland, especially throughout the island’s higher elevations. Indeed, this melt happened, affecting 816.88km^2, which is significantly more than the multidecadal average of 297.5km^2 for late June. As a result of such a large melt area and rate, the ability of the winter snowpack to absorb additional meltwater has been compromised, meaning that this expected melt is assumed to bring significant runoff as the water cannot be retained.

Given that this season’s warming has already led to abnormally bare areas, and with extensive melts in the forecast, we can expect significant ice loss in parts of Greenland by summer’s end.