Greenland With Record Warm Start to the Fall

September has been unusually warm on Greenland, according to the EU's Earth observation program, Copernicus. Temperatures that were 8°C above the monthly average were registered in several places on the island, which are the warmest temperatures recorded since 1979.

Temperatures in the Arctic are rising almost four times as quickly as the world average, according to Finnish-Norwegian research presented in August.

The weather situation on Greenland has been deadlocked for the last month, as warm and moist air has flowed in from the northern part of the Atlantic due to low pressure in Canada, says supervisor Thor Hart at the Danish Meteorological Institute to Sermitsiaq.

"It is not unusual that there are periods of heat coming from the south and the southwest, but it is unusual that the weather has stayed like this for a whole month," says Hart and points to the contrasting cool summer. 

Last month, record-breaking rainfall was registered on Greenland as well, reports Sermitsiaq. The cities Aasiaat and Sisimiut have respectively had their wettest and second wettest September since 1958 and 1961. The former has had 145,3 millimeters of rain compared to the normal 33,7 mm, and the latter had 159,5 mm compared to the normal 60,5 mm.

This can be linked to the fact that warm and moist air can contain more water vapor with the potential for more rainfall, says Hart.