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March 3, 2006

Torrid temperatures smash records around Nunavut

“The warm air is all in the North and the cold air in the South. The weather is backwards”

JANE GEORGE

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Meltwater in the Pangnirtung Fiord reflects the mountains facing the community after temperatures reached 8.5 C last week, accompanied by easterly winds of 85 km/hr gusting to 125 km/hr. (PHOTO COURTESY OF PETER KILABUK)

In Iqaluit, kids got out their bikes and drivers faced potholes three months ahead of time, while residents in windy Pangnirtung simply stayed at home and hoped the roof wouldn’t blow away.

“The record books for February will have to be rewritten as Sunday evening saw temperatures reach 6.8°C in Pangnirtung and 4.2°C in Iqaluit, breaking a 60-year monthly record for the capital,” said Yvonne Bilan-Wallace from Environment Canada’s Meteorological Service in Edmonton.

The torrid temperatures, she said, do not prove the Arctic is warming, “but in the last 20 years we’ve seen a lot of records broken.”

With temperatures more than 20°C above normal and winds up to 125 kilometres per hour in some Nunavut communities earlier this week, climate change was on the mind of MLAs meeting in Nunavut’s legislature.

On Monday, Olayuk Akesuk, the minister responsible for transportation, joked that the Airbus A380 could return to Iqaluit for warm-weather testing, while Pangnirtung’s MLA Peter Kilabuk told how his community had shut down and suffered damages, due to the wind. Iqaluit East MLA Ed Picco called for Environment Canada to re-open its Iqaluit weather bureau so weather forecasts can be as accurate as possible.

The attention to the unusual weather was merited: on Monday, Nunavut continued to be among the warmest spots in Canada, with above-freezing day-time temperatures in Iqaluit of about 5°C, or, in the case of Pangnirtung, 8.7°C. The only competition was a temperature of 11°C in the Vancouver/Victoria area of British Columbia.

The temperatures were unprecedented for Nunavut, breaking all records for February.

“You have broken an all-time February record. This is exceptional. The warm air is all in the North and the cold air in the South. The weather is backwards,” Bilan-Wallace said.

Before this week, the warmest temperature recorded in Iqaluit in February was on Feb. 22, 1965 when the temperature reached 4.4°C.

On Monday in Iqaluit, the temperature hit 5.7°C, and only dipped to -0.8°C. Normal temperatures for Iqaluit in late February range from -22°C to -31°C. The past high for the date of Feb. 27 had been -0.5°C in 1986, and the past low -44.5°C. in 1991.

On Sunday, temperatures were already above normal: Iqaluit broke the 3.3°C record temperature for Feb. 26 set in 1946 — when weather recording first started — with a new high of 4.2°C. Sunday’s minimum temperature in Iqaluit of -14.4°C was also far above the record breaking low of -44.7 set in 1981.

Saturday was also unseasonably warm. On Feb. 25, Iqaluit topped its former record of -3.9°C set in 1947, with a temperature of -0.2°C.

Record breaking temperatures in Nunavut For Monday, Feb. 27, 2006
Station	New Max. Temp	Max Temp.	Year Set	Record began
Iqaluit	5.7	2.1	1986	1946
Resolute Bay	-9.0	-17.2	1956	1948
Cape Dorset	1.9	-1.5	1986	1963
Hall Beach	0.6	-8.9	1965	1957
Coral Harbour	-4.6	-7.2	1956	1934
From Environment Canada

On Sunday in Pangnirtung, temperatures actually reached 8.5 C, while normal temperatures are usually -20 to -29°C. But last year in Pangnirtung, on the same date, temperatures also hit 5°C. Due to the mountains, inversions of air are more common in Pangnirtung, causing “mini-chinooks.”

At the same time, late Sunday afternoon winds in Iqaluit peaked at 70 km/hr with gusts to 90 km/hr, while Pangnirtung experienced easterly winds of 85 km/hr gusting to 125 km/hr.

While this intense storm, with winds, was expected, what was unexpected, according to Environment Canada, were the record warm temperatures combined with rain.

“The fact that you got rain was truly exceptional,” Bilan-Wallace said.

It has only rained three other times in south Baffin in February since 1946. Bilan-Wallace said weather forecasters couldn’t believe the precipitation from the storm was going to come down as rain because there is a fine line between rain and snow. As it turned out, the blizzards forecast for Sunday and Monday ended up as rain.

By the end of the week, temperatures returned to the minus side of the thermometer, but were to remain at least 15 degrees above normal into the weekend.

Along with the weather forecasts and warnings, Bilan-Wallace cautioned extra care out on the land.

“When conditions get warmer you have some really unusual things — say you’re going on the land, and you get soaked by rain in February — are you prepared for that? I’m always concerned that when you get extreme weather that there are risks associated with this,” Bilan-Wallace said.

This week, Iqaluit and Pangnirtung were not the only Eastern Arctic communities showing extreme temperatures.

On Sunday, Feb. 26, Resolute Bay’s temperature was -12.3°C, more than five degrees higher than the last record high of -17.2°C set in 1966; Cape Dorset beat its former high of -4.6°C set back in 1981 by 0.1°C, and Hall Beach topped its former record of -11.1°C set in 1957 with a new high of -6.6°C.

Saturday was also unseasonably warm in Hall Beach, where the temperature of -7.4°C broke the previous record of -13.8°C from 1981.

Rain and warm temperatures also grazed the Ungava Bay coast of Nunavik. On Monday, Aupaluk’s temperature was 1°C, way above the normal range of -16°C, while Kuujjuaq hit 3°C.

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