Greenland melt index (2012 red bar)

Melting over the Greenland ice sheet melt shattered the seasonal record on August 8 — a full four weeks before the close of the melting season, reports Marco Tedesco, assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at The City College of New York.

The melting season in Greenland usually lasts from June — when the first puddles of meltwater appear — to early-September, when temperatures cool. This year, cumulative melting in the first week in August had already exceeded the record of 2010, taken over a full season, according to Professor Tedesco’s ongoing analysis.

“With more yet to come in August, this year’s overall melting will fall way above the old records. That’s a goliath year — the greatest melt since satellite recording began in 1979,” said Professor Tedesco.

The film clip below details how the melting Artic ice impacts northern hemisphere weather patterns by equalising the temperature differences between the Artic and the Equator. As this happens cold Jet Stream air does not penetrate as far south from the Artic therefore causing more heatwaves, drought and wildfire susceptibility.