THE DANISH METEOROLOGICAL Institute (DMI) has said that soaring temperatures in Greenland recently are in line with trends which experts have linked to global warming.

The region’s capital Nuuk saw temperatures reach 13 degrees Celsius on Monday, compared to the -5.3 Celsius that is average for this time of year.

In Qaanaaq in the north, temperatures reached 8.3C, when the seasonal average is usually -20.1C.

DMI did not say whether the temperatures recorded had broken records set on the island.

“One of the reasons we’re seeing high temperatures is the foehn meteorological phenomenon”, DMI climatologist Caroline Drost Jensen told AFP, referencing a warm wind that is common in the world’s largest island.

“It is a bit unusual that it is simultaneously happening across such a vast territory and for so long,” she said.

“Global warming is supporting the elevated temperatures that we are currently observing over Greenland,” she said.

Over the summer, temperatures 10 degrees higher than average led to loss of glaciers across the vast territory.

On some days, the glaciers were recorded to have lost a record eight billion tonnes of ice, double the average they usually shed in the summer.

- © AFP 2021.