Greenland ice sheet starts melting alarmingly early amid record temperatures

Greenland's ice sheet usually begins melting at the end of May - this year, it started in the middle of April

Greenlanders are worried about this year's early melt (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

A team of Danish scientists has discovered an enormous area of Greenland has started melting earlier in the year than ever before.

Greenland's ice sheet typically melts when the spring arrives, thawing slightly as temperatures rise, before freezing again in the winter.

However, until now the earliest date when more than 10 per cent of the sheet had started melting was 5 May, during the spring of 2010. According to observations and weather models made by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), almost 12 per cent of the ice sheet had started to thaw out by 11 April, a new record.

DMI climate scientist Peter Landgren said he was initially incredulous that such a large thaw could have started so early.

"We had to check that our models were still working properly," he said.

"Fortunately, we could see from the promice.dk stations on the ice sheet that it had been well above melting, even above 10°C. This helped to explain the results."

Much of the melting has occurred in the lower parts of Greenland, but Robert Fausto, from the Danish Geological Survey, said higher parts of the ice sheet which are further from the ocean and typically colder than other areas also saw "very high temperatures."

At one temperature-recording station higher above sea level than the peak of Ben Nevis, scientists saw a maximum temperature of 3.1°C.

This doesn't sound too hot, but Fausto said: "This would be a warm day in July, never mind April."

Quoted in a post on DMI's website, climate scientist Martin Stendel explained the unusually early melt is down to a combination of cold air and low pressures on either side of Greenland, which have caused a warm air "cap" to form over the island.

Forecasters expect the temperatures to cool again over the rest of the month, although the troubles won't end there. Water from the melted ice will run into the snow and re-freeze, heating up ice under the surface. This will mean that it won't need to get as hot in future for the melt to start again.

Numerous hot weather records have been broken in in recent times. February this year was the most unusually hot month since records began, with global temperatures reaching around 1.3°C hotter than average. This record was previously broken only the month before, signifying a surprising spike in temperatures in a very short period.

With Greenland's all-time temperature records coming close to being broken this month, the country's small population is growing concerned about the future.

Aqqaluk Petersen, a resident of Nuuk, Greenland's capital city, told DMI: "Everything is melting."