Earlier this month, the weather in Greenland was very hot for several days by local standards. Temperatures hovered around 15.5℃ in some areas, more than 10 degrees Celsius above the July average, CNN reports.
These unusually high temperatures caused widespread melting of snow and ice on the Greenland ice sheet. In just three days from July 15-17, this region lost about 18 billion tons of water. This would be enough to cover the entire state of West Virginia with a layer of about 30 cm.
Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado, told Gizmodo in a letter that between July 20 and 23, 8 to 10 billion tons of water melted and left the ice sheet per day. The image from the Copernicus satellite was taken at the peak of this meltdown on July 22.
Source: Ferra
