Greenland ice melted much faster than average in the May heatwave: scientists. June 11, 2025
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Jun 10
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 11
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Greenland ice melted much faster than average in the May heatwave: scientists.
Copenhagen, June 11, 2025 (AFP) - Greenland's ice sheet melted 17 times faster than the past average during a May heatwave that also hit Iceland, the scientific network World Weather Attribution (WWA) said in a report Wednesday.
The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in the scientific journal Nature.
"The melting rate of the Greenland ice sheet by, from a preliminary analysis, a factor of 17... means the Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea level rise is higher than it would have otherwise been without this heat wave," one of the authors of the report, Friederike Otto, associate professor in climate science at the Imperial College London, told reporters.
"Without climate change, this would have been impossible," she said.
In Iceland, the temperature exceeded 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) on May 15, an unprecedented occurrence for that time of year on the subarctic island.
"Temperatures over Iceland as observed this May are record-breaking, more than 13 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1991-2020 average May daily maximum temperatures," the WWA said.
In May, 94 percent of Iceland's weather stations registered record temperatures, according to the country's meteorological institute.
In eastern Greenland, the hottest day during the heatwave was approximately 3.9 degrees Celsius warmer than the preindustrial climate, the WWA stated.
"While a heatwave that is around 20 degrees Celsius might not sound like an extreme event from the experience of most people around the world, it is a really big deal for this part of the world," Otto said.
"It affects the whole world massively," she said.
According to the WWA, the record highs observed in Iceland and Greenland this May could recur every 100 years.
For Greenland's indigenous communities, the warmer temperatures and melting ice affect their ability to hunt on the ice, posing a threat to their livelihood and traditional way of life.
The changes also affect infrastructure in the two countries.
"In Greenland and Iceland, infrastructure is built for cold weather, meaning during a heatwave, ice melt can lead to flooding and damage roads and infrastructure," the WWA said.
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Human-caused global warming and its resultant increasing number and intensity of climate-change-induced extreme weather events rightfully continue to stir up alarm (perhaps even for many of those people who still claim to distrust climate science). Nevertheless, to date there clearly has been pathetically little or no political courage/will to properly act on the scientific cause-and-effect of them.
There’s a continuance of polluting the natural environment with a business as usual attitude. Societally, we still discharge out of elevated exhaust pipes, smokestacks and, quite consequentially, from sky-high jet engines like it’s all absorbed into the natural environment without repercussion. Out of sight, out of mind.
Obstacles to environmental progress were quite formidable pre-pandemic. But Covid-19 not only stalled most…