Environment

Wildfires Darken Greenland Snowpack, Increase Ice Melt

Satellite observations have revealed the first direct evidence of smoke from Arctic wildfires drifting over the Greenland ice sheet, tarnishing the ice with soot and making it more likely to melt under the sun. Researchers previously recorded a 6 percent drop in reflectivity in Greenland over the last decade, which will cause enough warming to bring the entire surface of the ice sheet to melting each summer, as it did in 2012. Soot is an extremely powerful light absorber. It settles over the ice and captures the sun’s heat, which leads to stronger and more prolonged melting. That’s why increasing tundra wildfires have the potential to accelerate the melting in Greenland.

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The week's hottest temperature was 110.5 degrees Fahrenheit (43.6 degrees Celsius) at Nyang, Western Australia.

The week's coldest temperature was minus 58.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50.2 degrees Celsius) at Russia's Siberian community of Dzhalinda, which borders China.