Is Arctic Rain the Latest Climate Change Signal?

A recent Arctic rain shower has been viewed as a signal of the impact of climate change on the planet.

The shower fell over the Canadian Arctic and lasted for just three minutes, but according to the British explorers that encountered it, it can be regarded as a startling event. “It's definitely a shocker...the general feeling within the polar community is that rainfall in the high Canadian Arctic in April is a freak event”, the head explorer involved, Pen Hadow, advised news agency Reuter, adding: “Scientists would tell us that we can expect increasingly to experience these sorts of outcomes as the climate warms.”

Global warming is affecting the Arctic with three times more impact than anywhere else on the planet: a trend linked by scientists to accumulated atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.

Arctic Rain

According to another of the explorers stationed in Canada, the Arctic rain shower superseded several days of rising temperatures. “Rain isn't something you expect in the Arctic and a lot of us came up here to be away from that kind of weather”, Tyler Fish explained, adding: “We worry that if it's too warm maybe some of the scientific samples will start to thaw...or the food will get too warm and spoil.”

The Canadian explorers’ base is located close to Elles Rignes Island – the 16th biggest island in Canada and the 69th biggest on Earth. The missions being carried out from the base include a study of the effects of increased CO2 uptake on ocean acidification.

Arctic Climate Change

According to Hadow, those involved in the Arctic climate change research have discovered unusually thin ice formations and ice movement beyond what had been anticipated.

Scientists have recently established that the Arctic Ocean no longer has thick ice coverage all year round: something that could lead to more trade routes being established for cargo ships.

According to data issued in the US, there was less Arctic ice overall in 2009 than in any other previous year, bar 2007 and 2008. In July 2009, NASA scientists issued a key climate change report, asserting that Arctic ice was both shrinking and thinning.

See also:

Antarctic Carbon Sink Discovered