An unprecedented heatwave hit Europe last month, with cities across the continent hitting new all-time high temperatures. Among one of the worst places impacted by the weather was Greenland, which the Washington Post reports lost 12.5 billion tons of ice in a single day. The worst single day loss of ice to hit Greenland happened back in 2012, when more than 10 billion tons of ice melted and ran off into the ocean.
On Aug. 1 Greenland hit 22 degrees celsius (roughly 71 fahrenheit), and the results of that high can be seen below.
Greenland's landmass is comprised of 80 percent ice, but with the impact climate change is having on the environment that will begin to rapidly decline. Roughly 60 percent of the ice sheet was impacted by the late July/early August heatwave. Throughout the high temperatures, a total of 197 billion tons of ice was lost.
As the weather begins to head back to more seasonally normal temperatures, parts of the ice sheet will solidify again. But the ice that was lost to the ocean will regardless have an irreversible impact on the sea level rise.
