Nuuk, Greenland – The snowmobile climbs rapidly along the ski lift’s cables. But only the lift is not running.
Suddenly, the driver and operator of the ski lift, Kulu Heilman, stops and walks toward the bare rocks on a mountain outside Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.
“You can see it – there should be snow here. People should be skiing here,” he said, pointing to a rocky slope near the city’s airport.
He has been working here for 25 years.
But this year, he experienced something unusual. The lift and ramp never opened. There simply isn’t enough snow.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s never happened before,” he said.
Greenland’s warmest January ever
The halted ski season comes after Greenland’s west coast recorded its warmest January ever, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).
The average temperature in Nuuk in January was a new record of 0.1 degrees Celsius (32.2 degrees Fahrenheit), the DMI said. That’s 7.8C (14F) warmer than the 1991-2020 January normal. The highest temperature in Nuuk this January was 11.3C (52.3F).
A typical January day in Nuuk is usually minus 11C – not plus 11C.
The same pattern held along more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) of the west coast as many towns posted unusually high monthly averages.
Carolyn Drost Jensen, a DMI meteorologist, told Al Jazeera that despite mild winter spells occurring in Greenland, the number of stands out this year is a record.
“I have to say, I’m shocked,” he said. “I’ve never seen so many records at one time. It’s really remarkable, … very eye-catching.”
Drost Jensen said the immediate driver behind the warm January is the jet stream, which is steering milder winds north toward Greenland.
But a generally warmer baseline — from human-driven climate change — could push higher temperatures over those climate patterns, he said.
Malen Jensen, who lives in Central Nuuk, said she has noticed a change.
“It’s been a strange winter,” he said.
The Arctic is warming rapidly
Scientists have long warned that the Arctic is not warming at the same pace as the rest of the planet.
Research in recent years has described Arctic temperatures roughly three to four times higher than the global average, driven by feedbacks such as loss of reflective snow and sea ice, which allow the dark ocean and land to absorb more heat.
On a closed ski slope, Heilmann observed that temperatures in the Greenlandic capital have been rising over the past two decades. He decided to apply to the local government for artificial snow making equipment.
“We didn’t really think it was necessary. But now it’s our biggest wish. It’s necessary if we want to keep the ski lift open during the shoulder season. And this year it could have given us many ski days,” Heilman said.
Generally, the season opens in December and ends in April. For a small ski hill that relies on natural snowfall and has no artificial snowmaking system, this type of winter can be devastating.
“We’ve lost at least a meter,” says Heilmann, standing on bare rocks halfway up the small mountain.
‘This year has been terrible’
The climate story feeds into politics because less ice changes access over time.
A longer ice-free season could make Arctic sea lanes more usable and expand the window for activity on land, including exploration for strategic minerals such as rare earths.
That long-term change is part of why Greenland is getting so much attention from Washington.
United States President Donald Trump is pushing for US control of Greenland, saying repeatedly that he wants the island to become US territory.
Ulrik Pram Gud, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said the melting ice does not create “immediate worries” in Washington but changes the long-term map.
“In two, three, four decades,” he said, “there will be basically no polar sea ice left,” opening a “new maritime domain” the US wants to oversee.
Back to Nuuk’s Hill, Heilman is not talking about maritime domains. They are talking about whether there will be enough snow.
Recently, it seems that the cold has returned to Greenland. But there is still no snow in sight.
As he turned the snowmobile toward the base station, Heilman returned to a question many people in Greenland have been asking.
“This year is scary. If we look into the future – what will it look like in 20 or 30 years?”
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