97% Melt

Greenland is one of the areas that scientists are monitoring - to observe the effects of a warming planet on large ice areas and sea level rise.

In an ordinary summer, some melting will occur on the surface of Greenland's ice. This ice melt will occur over about 50% of the surface. This summer it went from 40% melt to 97% melt - in just 4 days. The two NASA images below are from the 8th and 12 July, with the pink indicating melt area.

In 2007, James Hansen of NASA said (about permanent melting) that "we cannot rule out large changes on decadal time-scales once wide-scale surface melt is underway."

I suspect that 97% would come under the definition of 'wide-scale'.

[Full NASA article]
[See the video]
[More info on the Greenland Ice Sheet]