Greenland is located in the arctic climate zone, average temperature during the summer months does not exceed 10 °C (50 °F). In the southern part of the country, however, temperatures can reach 20 °C (68 °F) in June, July or August.

Low humidity

The air is generally very dry compared to other countries, and due to the low humidity, the low temperatures are not felt as strongly as one might expect. On the other hand, dry air means you need to drink more water than usual. The low humidity also means you can see farther than you're used to. Mountains that seem pretty close tend to be farther than you think, and this should be kept in mind when planning your hike.

Wind in Greenland

In general, it is not very windy in Greenland. Most of the time, the sea is absolutely calm here and tourists can enjoy the mirror-like surface of fjords and lakes. However, the wind can certainly pick up. These are mainly southeasterly winds, with gusts over 50 m/s (111 mph). And, as a rule, this wind brings precipitation. However, strong winds are rarely a problem for visitors who visit Greenland in the summer.

cold factor

IN winter time wind can increase the effect of the cold. At minus 5 °C (23 °F) it seems much colder outside due to 10 m/s winds. This is what is known as the cold factor. The right clothes are actually the key to success, because in tourism there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes!

Precipitation in Greenland

Greenland is not a place completely devoid of rain, but heavy rain is very rare. Precipitation levels are slightly higher in the south. For example, Nanortalik receives about 900 mm of precipitation per year, while Upernavik in the north averages only 200 mm of precipitation per year. In fact, northeast Greenland itself receives less rainfall than the Sahara, which is why the concept of the "Arctic Desert" arose.

The amount of snow varies greatly by area, but it is not uncommon to see a large number of snow in many cities from December to March. Ask your local travel agency for snow levels in advance if you plan to go skiing or dog sledding. Best months for dog riding from February to April.

Temperature in Greenland

The temperature in Greenland largely depends on where you are and what time of year you visit the country. The average temperature stays below +10°C (50°F) in June, July and August in almost every city in Greenland.

Due to the low humidity in Greenland, it seems that it is warmer outside in summer than you might expect. If the sun is shining, then it is quite possible to walk in shorts and shirts with short sleeves.

In winter, the average temperature reaches -20 °C (-4 °F).

Greenland average temperatures

The table shows average temperatures for most cities in Greenland. Since this is a 24-hour average temperature, the average daytime temperature will be slightly higher while the average nighttime temperature will be slightly lower.

CITIES		JAN	FEB	IDA	APR	MAY	JUN	JUL	AVG	SEN	OCT	BUT I	DEC
Upernavik		-17	-20	-20.1	-13.1	-3.7	1.7	5.5	5.2	0.8	-4	-8.8	-14.2
Ilulissat		-14.8	-19.6	-19.9	-8.2	-0.5	5.1	7.5	5.9	2.4	-3.1	-7.8	-9.9
Aasiaat		-13.4	-15.6	-16.2	-9.6	-1.8	2.7	5.7	5.3	2.3	-2.3	-6	-9.9
Sisimiut		-12.8	-13.9	-14	-7.1	-0.2	3.6	6.3	6.1	3.2	-1.9	-5.9	-10.1
Kangerlussuaq		-19.8	-21.4	-18.1	-7.8	2.5	8.6	10.7	8.2	3	-5.5	-12.1	-16.4
Nuuk		-7.4	-7.8	-8	-3.8	0.6	3.9	6.5	6.1	3.5	-0.7	-3.7	-6.2
Paamiut		-6.6	-6.4	-6	-2.3	1.4	3.7	5.6	5.3	3.5	0.1	-2.8	-5.4
Narsasuaq		-6.8	-6.1	-5.1	-0.1	5.2	8.3	10.3	9.3	5.5	0.4	-3.2	-6.1

The area of ​​glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland is larger than Germany, France, Spain and Italy combined. If all of its ice melts, sea levels will rise by about 7 meters.

A new analysis of Greenland's temperature will help figure out how fast the vast island ice sheet is melting. It was previously found to have been declining since 1900, and since 2003 the annual ice loss has doubled.

Greenland settlement. LouieLea | Shutterstock

To determine how fast the island's ice is melting in the present and will melt in the future, past and present surface air temperature data are needed, researchers Jack Reeves Eyre and Hubin Deng from the University of Arizona (USA) report.

“It is critical to understand the future of Greenland in the context of global climate change, as its condition significantly affects sea levels,” said lead author Reeves Eyre.

Calculating the mean annual surface temperature for all of Greenland is difficult to do. For most of the 20th century, the only weather stations were located along the coast. There was no inland network of weather stations in Greenland until 1995.

Other groups of researchers have used combinations of weather station data, remote sensing satellites, statistical analyzes, and climate models to calculate the annual temperature of the Earth's surface before 1901. However, there are significant differences between these analyses.

LouieLea | Shutterstock

Knowing past temperatures in Greenland is important for improving climate models, as scientists test regional and global climate models by seeing how well they show what the climate was like in the past.

Previous analyzes have given conflicting results, with some reporting that the 1930s were warmer than they are now, while other analyzes have suggested otherwise.

To get a more accurate estimate of temperature in the 20th century, scientists compared 16 different analyzes from 1901 to 2014 and used Additional information from meteorological stations and field expeditions. “This is the first time we've brought all these datasets together,” Deng said.

To avoid bias in the results due to temperature differences at different altitudes, the scientists divided the temperature data into three categories: coastal areas, areas below and above the level of 1500 meters.

The coastal regions of Greenland are ice-free throughout the year. At intermediate heights, the glaciers and ice sheet melt in summer and refreeze in winter; but due to rising temperatures, their annual reduction occurs. Above 1500 meters, the ice usually does not melt and may even gain mass. However, this small increase does not compensate for the loss of ice at lower altitudes. The new study resolves previous discrepancies and provides the best estimates of Greenland's past temperature.

“By examining the wide range of data available and combining the two best analyzes ( MERRA2 And GISTEMP), we have developed a combination that most closely reflects the temperature distribution across Greenland from 1880 to 2016,” Reeves Eyre emphasized. Using this dataset The best way evaluate climate models and their forecast of temperature changes in Greenland”.

While some previous analyzes suggest that the 1930s were warmer than they are now, the new analysis shows that current temperature higher than in the 1930s. And in the long term, according to the authors, Greenland is expected to rise in temperature to unprecedented levels.

An article titled Evaluation of Greenland near surface air temperature datasets was published on July 5 in the open access journal The Cryosphere. The study was supported by NASA, the US Department of Energy and UA Agnese Nelms Haury Program.

In the usual view, Greenland is a country of polar cold, where all year round there is ice and snow. This does indeed correspond to the climate of the interior of Greenland, but due to the great stretch from south to north - the country stretches over 20 degrees of latitude (over 2,000 km) - its coastline is characterized by a wide variety of climates. In the southern part of the island in many places in July and August there is no frost at all and the temperature sometimes rises above 20 °, while in the northern part frosts usually prevail throughout the year and the summer temperature is so low that in Denmark one would hardly call it "in summer". However, in addition to these basic conditions, the climate is also influenced by numerous fjords, in some places very deeply cutting into the land and in some places bordered by quite high mountains. They often create specific, purely local climatic conditions, so that various terrains, which are very close to each other, can vary greatly in such climatic elements as wind, temperature, fog, etc.

The position of Greenland on the globe as an isolated land, the northernmost part of which is entirely included in the Arctic region, while the southern tip reaches 60 ° N. sh., the fact that most of its surface lies at a considerable height (1500 - 3000 m), give it some peculiar climatic features. Recall that everywhere on the globe, between the equator and the poles, there is an exchange of cold air masses coming from the poles and warm air masses coming from the equator. The mixing of these very different air masses is the cause of the instability of the weather in our latitudes, associated with areas of low pressure, or "cyclones". Geographical position Greenland and a significant altitude are the reason that the exchange of various air masses cannot occur over Greenland without hindrance, as happens, for example, in Denmark. Greenland is presented as a massif 2-3 km high, which "retracts" cold air masses to the south along its eastern side. When cold air masses from the north go far enough to the south, they meet there with warmer air masses coming from the south. It is for this reason that in the areas adjacent to Greenland, as well as on the coast of the southern part of the country, the weather is unstable. A well-known phenomenon noted on the weather maps of the northern part Atlantic Ocean, is that at the southern tip of Greenland, the cyclones seem to diverge; some are heading west of Greenland, while others are heading east. Only a small number of long-term observations have been made in the interior of the country, but the observations that we have show with complete certainty that cyclonic activity can also occur over the interior of the country, although not with such intensity as along the coasts. In cases where cyclones are of sufficient height, their upper layers can pass over the continental glacier, while the lower part of cyclones up to 3 km in height lingers at its limits.

The southern tip of Greenland is at the same latitude as Oslo, and one might therefore assume that the climate in Southern Greenland and southern Norway is basically the same. This, however, is not true, because Greenland, especially its eastern coast, is strongly influenced by arctic air masses, while Norway, along its entire length, is mainly under the influence of mild southwesterly winds, which makes the temperature there 6- 8° higher than even those parts of Greenland where the climate is mildest.

The difference in climatic conditions in different regions

We have said that the indentation of the coast of Greenland, with its many deep fjords, partly bordered by high mountains, causes a great difference climatic conditions from place to place. This can be found from numerous descriptions of travelers, reports of expeditions, etc. The following can be said about the main features of these differences.

The fjords, deeply cut into the land, naturally provide effective protection from the winds that dominate open sea or over the mountains; inside the fjords there is often no wind at all or only a slight wind, while in the open sea it reaches considerable strength or even a storm rages. The exception, of course, is when the wind is directed directly into or out of the fjord. However, the reverse can also be observed, when a strong wind blows towards the outer part of the fjord or from the fjord, while at sea the wind is relatively weak; such winds can be caused by various reasons; it happens that a relatively weak stream of air will be compressed at a great distance in a narrow fjord and, as a result, will acquire considerable force. Wind can also arise due to the large difference in temperatures outside the fjord and in the inner part of the fjord (during the day or summer, the outer part of the fjord can have cold air, and inside the fjord it can be warm, at night and winter - vice versa). In this case, the change of winds can be quite regular; it may also be related to other factors, such as the occurrence of fogs. These winds are at times so strong that they can make sailing difficult.

In summer, the temperature over the open sea differs very little from the temperature of the water. However, in clear weather, when the snow has already melted inside the fjord, protected from the winds, the sun warms the slopes of the fjords, which, in turn, warm the air, so that one can observe how, as you move into the interior of the fjord, that is, as you approach the mainland glacier, it is getting warmer. However, in winter, the opposite occurs: open coast, as long as the sea is free of ice, the temperature is relatively high, while the still air in the depths of the fjord is greatly cooled.

Foehn wind and its impact on climate

The foehn wind is very characteristic of Greenland. If a stream of air overcomes such a huge obstacle as Greenland, then this stream can either follow the contours of this obstacle, go up the slope on one side and go down the slope on the other side, or it can pass over the top of the plateau, forming at this is the so-called "dead corners" above the very surface of the slopes, where the air masses are motionless, and then it is relatively calm below the coast. In the first case, the air therefore rises and then sinks over both coasts, and this causes respectively a cooling or heating of 10° for every kilometer of ascent or descent. Cooling, however, is not so significant, because it causes the formation of precipitation, which reduces it to 5 ° per 1 km of altitude; the heating, on the other hand, when the air current descends, is not restrained by anything, and if the same mass first rises with the formation of precipitation and then descends, then it eventually heats up by 5 ° for each kilometer of rise. The flow of air heated due to precipitation during ascent and subsequent lowering is called a hair dryer. It is clear that the shape of the surface of Greenland creates favorable conditions for its occurrence. It can occur when the wind either passes over a continental glacier or rises up the slopes of coastal mountains in one place, in order to then descend in another place.

Characteristic of the hair dryer is that it usually blows intermittently. Special meteorological conditions are needed to make the air flow rise over the surface of the land and descend, instead of passing at a considerable height. Foehns do not occur when air flows at a considerable height, they start when the air descends and passes over the surface.

The foehn wind is always very dry, and if the place where the foehn blows is cold, it often causes a strong and sudden rise in temperature, which can reach 20 ° in a day. The maximum temperature is often noted for a very short time and easily escapes direct measurement in the absence of recording instruments, in particular, a maximum thermometer. This circumstance is connected with the discontinuous nature of the foehn mentioned above.

However, in winter, a very noticeable increase in temperature can be caused not by the foehn wind, but by the intrusion of warm air from more southern latitudes. Although at the same time a transition from frost to thaw can also take place, not only in the south, but even in more northern parts countries, yet such cases differ from foehn in that they are not accompanied by sudden short-term rises in temperature. In addition, such warm air intrusions are usually accompanied by precipitation or at least wet weather as opposed to dry weather caused by a foehn.

Since the warm air invading a country must naturally escape it, passing either over the whole island or along the coast, it may appear as a foehn at the place where it leaves the coast. In such cases, in winter there is a rise in temperature and rain falls where the wind blows towards the land, and a still more noticeable increase in temperature in dry weather and foehn where the same air current, having passed over the glacier, again leaves the country. Both of these phenomena are noted on weather maps, and in cases where observations were simultaneously made in the interior of Greenland by expeditions located there, it was possible to directly "identify" the warm air current washing the country on its way over the continental ice.

Two opposing climatic factors have been mentioned several times above: cold Arctic air, which moves south along the coast from the Arctic proper, and soft oceanic air, which flows from the south to the southern tip of Greenland and can at times travel quite far to the north. There is, however, a third climatic factor of equal importance, namely radiation. This primarily means, of course, solar radiation, which at first glance, due to the small height of the sun above the horizon, may seem insignificant. Of great importance for the climate of Greenland is the radiation of heat from the earth into the world space.

In the northernmost parts of the island, especially in winter, when the sun does not appear above the horizon at all for a more or less long time, the radiation of the heat of the earth predominates, acting as a cooling agent. Therefore, the lowest temperatures are observed when there is no wind or with a light wind; an increase in wind causes an increase in temperature even in cases where there is no direct influx of warmer air from the south. Since the winds usually weaken as one moves north, the cooling due to radiation is more pronounced in the north, which, along with the long polar night, undoubtedly contributes to a strong decrease in temperature, starting from Upernavik and further north.

In the southern part of the country, the warming effect of solar radiation is intensifying, which manifests itself here mainly in an increase in summer temperature, especially in the inner parts of the fjords, in places protected from the wind; in summer, temperatures are sometimes observed here almost the same as in Denmark (20 ° or slightly higher). In this respect, no doubt importance may acquire the fact that on many slopes on days with a low height of the sun above the horizon, its rays fall more vertically than on a horizontal surface. This is due to the relatively strong heating of individual places.

Covered by an ice sheet, continental is formed. The climate of Greenland is harsh. Here, throughout the year, negative temperatures: in summer - from -10 to -15 ° С; in winter - from -45 to -50 ° С. Temperature drops reached -65°C. In Greenland, the lowest average annual average for the Northern Hemisphere is -32.2 ° С. On the southern and eastern coasts of the island, where they pass more often, the annual is 800 - 1000 mm, but in the north it decreases to 100 mm. On the entire coastal strip of the island, they often blow. Frequent, especially in winter.

It snows quite often in eastern regions(up to 103 days a year in the Angmagssalik area); in the west - almost half as often (55 days at Sisimiut). The farther north, the more characteristic are infrequent, light snowfalls. The western coastal areas have frequent days in summer (113–128 per year in Qeqertarssuaq and Ilulissat).

Washed by the warm West Greenland current, southwestern Greenland has the warmest and mildest climate. The average temperature in January is from minus 1 to minus 4°, the average temperature in July in Ivigtut is about 11°. But in general, summers here are cold, damp, and winters are windy and snowy. Only on far south in the summer months, in places sheltered from the wind or on the southern slopes, the temperature can rise to +20°. More severe climate east coast, near which ice moves all year round, brought from the Central Arctic by the cold East Greenland Current. The most inhospitable and bleak nature of the constantly blocked by ice north coast. During the long polar night, temperatures drop to -52° here. Only 2–3 months a year, due to continuous sunshine, low positive temperatures are maintained.

Precipitation is low (less than 200 mm), so the ice sheet in the north recedes far from the coast

According to climatic differences in different parts of the island, the vegetation cover of Greenland is not the same. In general, it is believed that it is relatively scarce, but more than 1000 plant species have been found, including about 450 higher ones. The flora of Greenland is richer than any other region of the Arctic. Vegetation is concentrated only in the zone free from eternal ice, - in the fjords, on the coast and on the hills. The most varied vegetable world southern and southwestern Greenland, characterized by a milder, subarctic climate (average temperature in July +10 °).

There, in the sunniest and most wind-protected valleys, several birch copses have been preserved. Tree trunks reach a height of 4–7 m; often they are curved, and sometimes stretch parallel to the ground. American mountain ash, willow, juniper are also found here - they all look more like shrubs than trees. The valley with the best birch "forest" (Kingva, near Tassermiut) has been declared a nature reserve.