Arctic communities are feeling the heat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the Arctic, local populations have built communities on weather conditions that have been stable for centuries,\u201d says Maja Vahlberg, Technical Advisor at Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHowever, heatwaves like these signal emerging risks in Greenland and Iceland that are warming much faster than other regions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Arctic<\/strong><\/a> has warmed at a rate more than double the global average. This phenomenon, known as arctic amplification, is largely driven by melting sea ice: as the ice vanishes, it is replaced by an expanding area of dark ocean water that absorbs sunlight instead of reflecting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInuit communities face growing threats to traditional ways of life, while people in Iceland with existing health conditions are increasingly vulnerable to rising heat,\u201d adds Vahlberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Iceland experiences very low rates of heat-related deaths compared to countries in southern Europe<\/strong><\/a>, the heatwave may have impacted people with underlying health conditions before they had time to acclimatise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Warnings of sunburn and softened roads in Iceland highlight how cold-climate countries are beginning to experience new climate risks that can catch people off guard, the researchers say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sea ice loss is also impacting Inuit Indigenous communities, who make up 90 per cent of the population in Greenland<\/strong><\/a>. Reliable sea ice is vital for travel, but thinning ice is creating unstable conditions that cut off access to traditional hunting grounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The loss of sea ice has also seen a rapid decline in the number of sled dogs in Greenland, which have been used by Inuit groups for thousands of years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An Arctic heatwave might still seem like an anomaly, but such events are becoming increasingly common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn recent years, my colleagues and I in the Climate Group at the Icelandic Meteorological Office have noticed unusual weather extremes, such as rainfall events that far exceed in rainfall duration and amount, anything expected based on prior data,\u201d says Dr Halld\u00f3r Bj\u00f6rnsson, group leader at the Icelandic Met Office. \u201cIn short the old statistics do not apply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n May\u2019s heatwave broke records even in weather stations going back more than a century – including in Stykkisholmur, for example, where there is reliable data for more than 174 years. Dr Bj\u00f6rnsson says the event was the largest May heat they\u2019ve ever seen, with 94 per cent of weather stations setting new temperature records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat we are witnessing is not just an isolated event, but a change in weather statistics,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If greenhouse gas emissions<\/strong><\/a> continue on their predicted course, and warming reaches 2.6\u00b0C by 2100, heatwaves are set to become a further 2\u00b0C more intense in Iceland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Greenland, the scientists analysed data from a weather station in the eastern part of the country. They found the hottest single day in May was about 3.9\u00b0C warmer than it would have been in the preindustrial climate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While this analysis did not include climate models, the scientists say it’s likely that almost all of the increase was due to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat happens in the Arctic doesn\u2019t stay in the Arctic,\u201d warns Dr Friederike Otto, Associate Professor in Climate Science at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe unusual heat would have accelerated ice melt and contributed to sea level rise, which is threatening the survival of communities on small islands, like Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu, as well as Indigenous peoples such as the Inuit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greenland loses an average of 43 billion tonnes of ice per year, and a growing body of evidence suggests that continued warming could push the country past a tipping point where the melting of the ice sheet becomes irreversible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent study<\/strong><\/a> has warned that even 1.5\u00b0C of warming could trigger the loss of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, potentially causing several metres of sea level rise over the coming centuries, which would threaten the existence of low-lying islands around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another potential tipping point could have concerning consequences for Europe. The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is known to slow down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)<\/strong><\/a>, a vast ocean current that could weaken or collapse with further ice melt, potentially disrupting global climate patterns, causing severe weather changes worldwide and plunging Europe into a deep freeze<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know exactly what is causing the warming and the melting – the burning of oil, gas and coal. The good news is we can stop extreme heat from getting worse and worse, which means shifting away from fossil fuels,\u201d adds Dr Otto. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat does not require magic. We have the know-how and technology needed, but it does require recognising that human rights are for all, not just the rich and powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spring heat could be an emerging threat for vulnerable people in Iceland and Inuit communities in Greenland (Arctic).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3145,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions\/3145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Icelandic heatwaves set to become a further 2C more intense<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Copyright](\"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1366x768_cmsv2_96e56a2a-1d62-5f2d-baa0-f06a4c6284e3-9322693-1024x576.webp\")
How do Arctic heatwaves impact the rest of the world?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n