A single storm in 2022 dumped enough snow on Greenland to replace 8 percent of ice lost that year.
A single storm in 2022 dumped enough snow on Greenland to replace 8 percent of ice lost that year. With warming, the Arctic is seeing stronger atmospheric rivers, which could deliver enough snow to slow the loss of ice, according to a new study.
Atmospheric rivers, which ferry water vapor from the tropics to the Arctic, are growing more frequent and intense as the Arctic warms, raising fears of more intense rainfall that will hasten the loss of ice. But as the new study shows, atmospheric rivers can also produce huge volumes of snow.
On the Norwegian island of Svalbard, the atmospheric river unleashed a torrent of rain that turned snow to slush. But in Greenland, it had the opposite effect.
Read more at Yale Environment 360
Image: A March 2022 storm brings heavy snowfall to eastern Greenland (Credit: NASA)
