Watch: Greenland Ice Sheet Turns Into 10 Billion Tonnes Of Water In Hours

Greenland ice sheet ‘rapidly melting’ as Europe heatwave moves north

A heatwave that last week gripped Europe and sent the mercury soaring, causing record temperatures in several countries, has now settled in Greenland and the results are startling.

When one thinks of Greenland, images of an icebound, harsh and forbidding landscape probably come to mind, not a landscape of ice pocked with melt ponds and streams transformed into raging rivers. And almost certainly not one that features wildfires.

Yet the latter description is exactly what Greenland looks like today, according to imagery shared on social media, scientists on the ground and data from satellites.

An extraordinary melt event that began earlier this week continues on Thursday on the Greenland ice sheet, and there are signs that about 60% of the expansive ice cover has seen detectable surface melting, including at higher elevations that only rarely see temperatures climb above freezing.