Global Warming

Arctic Rain

While more snow than rain currently falls in the Arctic each year, a new study warns that the trend is likely to be reversed by the end of this century. Lead researcher Tingfeng Dou of the Chinese Academy of Sciences says that the frequency of rainy days in the Arctic could roughly double by 2100 as Earth’s climate heats even further.

“In the past, rainfall was primarily limited to the edges of the Greenland ice sheet,” Dou said. More rain will increase the melting of the tundra and Greenland’s glaciers, releasing more greenhouse gases.