What does a melting Greenland mean for UK weather?

ORIGIN: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/

Greenland’s ice sheets are melting, but what effect could it have on the weather in the UK and Europe?

The Kangerlussuaq Fjord; what does melting here mean for the UK’s weather? Image Colm O’Cofaigh.

The fjord glaciers on Greenland’s ice sheets are melting rapidly, pushing the Atlantic Ocean towards a critical climate tipping point.

An international team of researchers, including the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), are heading to Greenland to see how this melting is affecting ocean currents and what effect it might have on the weather in the UK and Europe.

Disruption to important ocean systems within decades

As Greenland melts, huge quantities of freshwater are entering the ocean. This could affect the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre, a major Atlantic Ocean current system, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

Scientists have described the AMOC as the planet’s ocean conveyor belt; it brings warm, salty water from the tropics to the north, which is cooled by the cold, sub-Arctic air, and sinks, pulling more water up from the south. It also moves nutrients around the world and keeps the planet