page_title: Climate of the Arctic
section_title: Greenland
hierarchical_section_title: Climate of the Arctic / Temperature / Greenland
caption_attribution_description: English: Map in English of Greenland ice sheet thickness. Thickness over 10 m above bedrock and mean sea level. Français&#160;: Carte en anglais de l'épaisseur de l'inlandsis du Groenland. Épaisseur supérieure à 10 m au-dessus de la surface rocheuse et du niveau moyen des mers. Lambert conformal conic projection; WGS84 datum standard parallels: 66° N - 78° N central meridian: 42° W Scale: 1:8,000,000 (precision: 2 km)
context_page_description: The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long, cold winters and short, cool summers. There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic, but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter. Some parts of the Arctic are covered by ice year-round, and nearly all parts of the Arctic experience long periods with some form of ice on the surface.
  The Arctic consists of ocean that is largely surrounded by land. As such, the climate of much of the Arctic is moderated by the ocean water, which can never have a temperature below −2 °C. In winter, this relatively warm water, even though covered by the polar ice pack, keeps the North Pole from being the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, and it is also part of the reason that Antarctica is so much colder than the Arctic. In summer, the presence of the nearby water keeps coastal areas from warming as much as they might otherwise.
context_section_description: Climatically, Greenland is divided into two very separate regions: the coastal region, much of which is ice free, and the inland ice sheet. The Greenland Ice Sheet covers about 80% of Greenland, extending to the coast in places, and has an average elevation of 2,100 m (6,900 ft) and a maximum elevation of 3,200 m (10,500 ft). Much of the ice sheet remains below freezing all year, and it has the coldest climate of any part of the Arctic. Coastal areas can be affected by nearby open water, or by heat transfer through sea ice from the ocean, and many parts lose their snow cover in summer, allowing them to absorb more solar radiation and warm more than the interior.
  Coastal regions on the northern half of Greenland experience winter temperatures similar to or slightly warmer than the Canadian Archipelago, with average January temperatures of −30 to −25 °C (−22 to −13 °F). These regions are slightly warmer than the Archipelago because of their closer proximity to areas of thin, first-year sea ice cover or to open ocean in the Baffin Bay and Greenland Sea.
  The coastal regions in the southern part of the island are influenced more by open ocean water and by frequent passage of cyclones, both of which help to keep the temperature there from being as low as in the north. As a result of these influences, the average temperature in these areas in January is considerably higher, between about −20 to −4 °C (−4 to 25 °F).
  The interior ice sheet escapes much of the influence of heat transfer from the ocean or from cyclones, and its high elevation also acts to give it a colder climate since temperatures tend to decrease with elevation. The result is winter temperatures that are lower than anywhere else in the Arctic, with average January temperatures of −45 to −30 °C (−49 to −22 °F), depending on location and on which data set is viewed. Minimum temperatures in winter over the higher parts of the ice sheet can drop below −60 °C (−76 °F)(CIA, 1978). In the station climatology figure above, the Centrale plot is representative of the high Greenland Ice Sheet.
  In summer, the coastal regions of Greenland experience temperatures similar to the islands in the Canadian Archipelago, averaging just a few degrees above freezing in July, with slightly higher temperatures in the south and west than in the north and east. The interior ice sheet remains snow-covered throughout the summer, though significant portions do experience some snow melt. This snow cover, combined with the ice sheet's elevation, help to keep temperatures here lower, with July averages between −12 and 0 °C (10 and 32 °F). Along the coast, temperatures are kept from varying too much by the moderating influence of the nearby water or melting sea ice. In the interior, temperatures are kept from rising much above freezing because of the snow-covered surface but can drop to −30 °C (−22 °F) even in July. Temperatures above 20 °C are rare but do sometimes occur in the far south and south-west coastal areas.
caption: Greenland's ice sheet thickness. Note that much of the area in green has permanent snow cover, it's just less than 10 m (33 ft) thick.
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