This blog post will examine the
climate and weather of the capital city of Greenland, Nuuk. A great deal of this post will deal with how
certain temperature controls, including but not limited to, altitude and geographic
position affect the weather and climate in which Greenland is characterized
by. Lastly this blog will dive into the
effects climate change has on the future weather and climate conditions of
Greenland and what controls will ultimately be affected.
The capital city of Greenland is Nuuk. It is located on the southwestern coast of
Greenland; to be precise its latitude and longitude coordinates are 64.1750° N,
51.7389° W. Other characteristics of
Nuuk are that, its warmest time of the year is during the month of July with an
average temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Its coldest time of the year is during the month of February with an
average temperature of 16 degrees Fahrenheit; the annual range of temperature
for Nuuk is 29 degrees Fahrenheit. http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=5240
A temperature control that affects
Nuuk is geographic position, specifically by windward gusts. This moderates the land temperature so there
isn't a big fluctuation throughout the seasons.
It allows for cool summers and moderate winters. However this is not necessarily the case since
Greenland is located at high latitudes this causes the average temperature to
be lower than it would if it was located at lower latitudes with the same
windward gusts. A temperature control
that doesn’t affect Nuuk is altitude.
The city of Nuuk is located by the coast and roughly a little above
200 ft above sea level so the temperature is often regulated due to the wind or
ocean currents rather than to height.
Based on the physical characteristics
of Greenland and the consistent increase in the world’s average temperature,
it’s apparent that the future climate of Greenland will have dire consequences.
It is very possible that in the future due to an increase in the world’s
average temperature, the ice sheets, that are characteristics of Greenland,
will melt. This will cause an increase
in the sea level and as a result coastal areas will become submerged, decreasing
the average surface area of the island as a whole. Apart from that, the increase in temperature
will cause a disproportionate distribution of the seasons, with an increase in
summer months. As a result of the
increase in the summer period, the average temperature of the island will rise,
giving way to more decrease in ice sheets. http://www.wunderground.com/climate/greenland.asp
It is
apparent that Greenland’s climate and temperature are affected differently by
different temperature controls. The
capital city, Nuuk, as discussed is mainly affected by geographic position but
not nearly as much as by altitude. In
the future, if global temperatures continue to warm, cities like Nuuk, that lie
on the coast, could cease to exist as ice sheets continue to melt and increase the
ocean levels.
This is a very interesting post about the climate of Nuuk, Greenland. It's evident that Nuuk's geographic position in the higher latitudes is one of the major factors on its relative cold climate. Also, sea level rise seems to be of increasing concern to the entire coastal region of your country. In contrast to Greenland, the country I've been assigned is India. The climate there varies from warm and tropical to cool and very dry. The major contributing factor to weather for India is the seasonal monsoon winds.
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