Scientists discovered a surprising cooling trend on glaciers in Mount Everest 10 years ago. Now they think they know what’s causing it.
by thisisinsider
Scientists discovered a surprising cooling trend on glaciers in Mount Everest 10 years ago. Now they think they know what’s causing it.
by thisisinsider
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TL;DR:
* As climate change drives up [~global average temperatures~](https://www.businessinsider.com/world-hottest-year-ever-history-climate-crisis-2024-1?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=insider-environment-sub-comment), glaciers around the world’s tallest mountains are actually getting slightly colder during the warm season, according to new research published in the peer-reviewed journal [~Nature Geoscience~](https://affiliate.insider.com/?h=0dc6c70667802d4e1cc86e2680e319594ea03a739aff2e6ac33bfcabe6c49fbc&platform=browser&postID=65c1565b2eedcd8f95e7e0a5&postSlug=mount-everest-glaciers-scientists-find-peculiar-cooling-trend-2024-2&site=bi&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41561-023-01331-y).
* Located on the southern face of [~Mount Everest~](https://www.businessinsider.com/dead-bodies-on-mount-everest-are-hard-to-get-down-2019-5?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=insider-environment-sub-comment) along the Khumbu Valley about 3.1 miles above sea level, sits one of the world’s few high-elevation science labs, called the Pyramid International Observatory.
* It’s been collecting hourly data on measurements like the mountain’s air temperature, total precipitation, humidity, and wind speed since the early ’90s. With nearly four decades of data in hand, scientists saw a strange pattern.
* They found that the [~maximum daytime temperature~](https://www.businessinsider.com/summer-2023-heat-wave-tracker-temperature-records-2023-5?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=insider-environment-sub-comment) during the warmer months from May to October had decreased by around 0.040 °C per year over the last 15 years.
* Was it a mistake? The researchers cross-checked the data with other weather stations around the southernmost stations of the Tibetan plateau. They realized that the cooling trend wasn’t just limited to the glaciers around Mt. Everest; it was across the entire [~Himalayas~](https://www.businessinsider.com/tibet-maybe-splitting-apart-himalayan-mountains-grow-tectonic-plates-study-2024-1?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=insider-environment-sub-comment).