No snow, no ski season: Greenland’s warmest January shuts Nuuk resort

Climate change fears grip Nuuk as winter temperatures reach record highs.Published On 10 Mar 2026Nuuk, Greenland – The snowmobile climbs fast alongside the cables of the ski lift. But the lift itself is not running. Suddenly, the driver and manager of the ski lift, Qulu Heilmann, stops and walks over to the bare rocks on the mountain outside Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital.“You can see it – there should be snow here. People should be skiing here,” he said, pointing at the rocky slope close to the city’s airport.He has worked here for 25 years.But this year, he experienced something unusual. The lift and slopes never opened. There simply has not been enough snow.“I have never seen anything like it. It has never happened before,” he said.Greenland’s warmest JanuaryThe stalled ski season comes after Greenland’s west coast recorded its warmest January ever, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).The DMI said the average temperature in Nuuk in January was 0.1 degrees Celsius (32.2 degrees Fahrenheit), a new record. That is 7.8C (14F) warmer than the January normal for 1991-2020. The highest temperature in Nuuk this January was 11.3C (52.3F).A normal January day in Nuuk is often around minus 11C – not plus 11C.The same pattern ran along more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) of the west coast as multiple towns posted unusually high monthly averages.Caroline Drost Jensen, a DMI climatologist, told Al Jazeera that while mild winter spells happen in Greenland, what stood out this year was the sheer number of records.“I have to say, I was taken aback,” she said. “I have never seen so many records at once. It was really striking, … very, very eye-catching.”The slopes lack snow this year as Greenland sees record high temperatures this winter [Peter Kerldorff/Al Jazeera]Drost Jensen said a jet stream steering mild air north towards Greenland was the immediate driver behind the warm January.