Overview
- Preliminary data show Nuuk averaged 0.2°C in January, the city’s warmest on record and far above the 1991–2020 norm of −7.7°C, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute.
- Researchers at Denmark’s National Centre for Climate Research report Greenland is warming about four times faster than the global average, with thinner, less extensive sea ice reducing reliability for transport.
- Unseasonable conditions are closing the capital’s ski hill, shortening cross-country trails, and forcing officials to postpone the annual Musk Ox hunt because ice is too thin for safe travel.
- Tour operators are canceling snowmobile excursions, and local fishers describe shifting methods as harbors see less ice and some seasons start earlier.
- Greenland hosts 25 of the 34 minerals the EU labels critical, and scientists say reduced ice could lower extraction and shipping costs, though permitting complexity, harsh conditions and indigenous opposition still constrain new mining.