It’s official: Greenland saw its hottest day ever in July 2013

Maniitsoq on the western coast of Greenland basked in record-breaking high temperatures this past July. (FILE PHOTO)

After some debate, a high temperature of 25.9 C recorded this past July in Greenland has now been approved as a new high temperature record-breaker for Greenland.

That approval came after a “meticulous climatological analysis and assessment,” the Danish Meteorological Institute announced Sept. 10.

On July 30, the 25.9 C temperature recorded at the official airport weather station in Maniitsoq at 4 p.m. was the highest ever measured by an official Greenland weather station since 1958, the DMI said.

Maniitsoq is located a few hundred kilometres north of Nuuk on Greenland’s southwest coast.

Greenland’s previous record-high temperature — and now a former record of 25.5 C — dates from July 27,1990 in Kangerlussuaq.

Whether the 25.9 C from July 2013 could actually be elevated to a new record for Greenland was assessed by climatologist John Cappelen after some said the temperature was recorded at an airport weather station — not in a more official weather station.

The airport weather station was “not necessarily optimal according to international guidelines for climatological measurements,” Cappelen said.

But Cappelen chose finally to approve the record for July 30, when a high pressure over Greenland, combined with a low pressure over Baffin Island, produced predominantly a warm, dry southeasterly wind, known as a föhn wind.

This type of dry, warm, downward moving wind that occurs in the leeward side of a mountain range can produce very warm temperatures.