Country Guide

Greenland has an area four times as large as France or the state of Texas, and is situated between 60° and 83°N so that three-quarters of the country lies within the Arctic Circle.

Only about 16% of its area is free from permanent snow and ice. These ice-free areas consist of high mountains around the coast through which great glaciers descend to deposit masses of ice in the surrounding seas. They are the main source of icebergs in the North Atlantic.

The northern shores are permanently blocked by sea ice. Baffin Bay on the west of Greenland has more open water in winter than the Greenland Sea to the east.

The table for Godthaab on the west coast is representative of the coasts of Greenland. Winters are long and severe and summers very short and cool. Precipitation, mostly snow, is moderately heavy around the coasts so that the icecap is continuously replenished.

The interior of the country consists of a great icecap up to 3,000 m/10,000 ft thick; it is the largest accumulation of snow and ice in the northern hemisphere. The table for Thule in the north of Greenland is representative of most of the interior icecap.

This has a true Arctic climate, with temperatures only above freezing for brief periods in the summer. There are occasional relatively warm summer days when the weather may feel quite pleasant if the wind is light or calm and the sun is shining. The low precipitation at Thule is probably typical of much of the interior icecap.

Conditions are most hazardous when there is a combination of low temperature and strong wind and, consequently, a high wind chill. Strong winds are often a feature of the winter weather on the coast as very cold air from the interior is funnelled down the glaciated valleys when a North Atlantic depression passes near the coast. The Greenland icecap is the source of some of the coldest air to affect northwest Europe.