The territory, Greenland, is the world’s largest island and is located in the Canadian Arctic. Recently, it got its first rainfall since 1950 when they started recording the weather. It was also the third time in history that the temperature was above freezing. Therefore, it was an eventful nine hours in Greenland on Saturday. 

On Saturday, August 14, 2021, it rained in Greenland for nine hours for the first time in 71 years when they started recording their weather. That is because temperatures were above freezing for the rainy period, causing rain and not snow. According to usatoday.com, it’s because of rising temperatures that this happened. Greenland’s average annual temperature is about 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-3.9 degrees Celsius). 

Global warming is congruent with rainfall because it is heating temperatures all across the globe, hence the name global warming. Not only is global warming heating the Earth, but also making ice caps melt. Which is then making sea levels rise. If Greenland’s ice cap melts, it will cause sea levels to grow almost 20 feet (6 meters). Think of it as ice cubes in water melting. The water level does not rise because they are in the water. So the water does not have to displace the volume of the ice cubes. 

Although Greenland gets little sprinkles of rain here and there, the nine-hour rain event does not happen very often. According to npr.org, it was also the most recent “melt event” on its ice cap. There were about 7 billion tons of rain that fell on Greenland’s ice cap. Most of the precipitation in Greenland is snow with a chance of light rain or sleet. 

Overall, this was a significant event for Greenland’s ice cap because it is one of the many signs that global warming affects our Earth. However, it’s not just Greenland. It’s also happening in Antarctica and many other places around the world. If the ice caps melt too much, there is the potential for flooding to occur in the world’s coastal cities.