2008 Temperatures: Greenland record-breaking temperatures causing early snow cover melt on southwestern coastal region

Update from May 26: a blogger from Holland, Leon, has sent a very interesting link to an animation of the last 30 days of 500-hPa height anomalies above the Arctic -- for those who understand such things or who just want to have a look, here is the link (you can see where Greenland is taking a beating):

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/intraseasonal/z500_nh_anim.shtml




Please click on the graph -- it will show the details much, much better.

This image is located on "Cryosphere Today" run by the Universities of Illinois and Colorado.

Link to the graph: http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=05&fd=25&fy=2007&sm=05&sd=25&sy=2008

BLOGGER'S NOTE: Normally, I do not post comments of my own here, but I thought it worth mentioning that the snow and ice cover on the southwestern coastal area of Greenland has drawn back significantly in the last week, about two weeks earlier than it did last year, which was already pretty early.

Not only that, but temperatures broke records for the past 3 days by large increases over the usual average temperature.

For example, at Kangerlussuaq, today's temperature tied the record set in 1998 (the year of an anomalously hot year due to that year's Mother of All El Ninos) at 59 degrees Fahrenheit. We don't have an El Nino to blame this year.

At Nuuk, on May 23rd, the record set in 1998 (48 F) was broken by 5 F (53 F).

On the 24th, the old record set in 2001 (46 F) was broken by 16 F (62 F).

On the 25th, the old record set in 1998 (48 F) was broken by 3 F (51 F).

Note that the average temperature for this time of year is only 38 F.

See related blog post at this link: http://climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/2008/05/greenland-caribou-food-supply.html