Rain On Greenland Ice Sheet, Possibly A First, Signals Climate Change Risk

Greenland: The rain was observed for several hours on August 14 at a measuring post over 3,000 metres up on the ice sheet, US Snow and Ice Data Center reported.

Rain fell at the highest point on Greenland's ice sheet -- possibly for the first time -- in an event Danish scientists on Monday said was most likely driven by climate change. The rain was observed for several hours on August 14 at a measuring post more than 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) up on the sheet, the US Snow and Ice Data Center reported. For rain to fall, temperatures must be above or just slightly below zero degrees Centigrade, signalling the risk that rising temperatures pose to the world's second-largest ice sheet after Antartica. "This is an extreme event as it may never have happened before," Martin Stendel, a researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute, told AFP.