Greenland Surface Mass Balance

OPS-25 I hope everyone is enjoying the New Year/Decade. A cold start here in Calgary, but currently enjoying the warm weather break (and before Leo D. (and the AGW alarmists) have an aneurism, it’s just a “Chinook” not “Climate Change”).

This OPS is a quick look at the status of the ice cap on Greenland. There have been lots of alarmist reports warning of catastrophic Greenland melting and the associated disastrous sea level rise. But is Greenland really melting away? Not according to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI). Greenland is still cold (despite all the political/media hot air that is directed in their direction). The Surface Mass Balance (SMB) has been positive every year in their records (even in the big melt year of 2012). That means more snow (and ultimately ice) were and are being deposited than are melting every year. And before the AGW alarmists go nuts, the SMB does not include the ice lost due to glacier calving. A recent study that is making the rounds estimated that Greenland has lost 3800 Giga-tonnes (Gt) over the 1992 – 2018 time period. Sounds like a lot, but if that loss continues, Greenland will still have 28.4 of its current 28.5 million Gt left in the year 2100. Doesn’t sound like an “emergency” to me.

And that assumes that we can (but really shouldn’t) ignore the forecasted Grand Solar Minimum we just entered. Strange that the Greenland glaciers have been advancing over the last few years despite the hottest years ever?