Towards the end of the year I saw a list of the Top 10 Weather Stories. Pretty much everyone picked it up, but in case you didn't, here's a link to one of the stories. Nunavut is kind of sort of mentioned there at #8 - "Winter 2010 was for most of Canada at least 2 C above normal, with some areas of the Arctic and northern Quebec more than 6 C above normal. A snow drought prevailed from British Columbia to Quebec."
Which is amusing. It hasn't been six degrees above normal for most of normal in Iqaluit throughout November and December. If it was only six degrees above normal then that was a pretty good day. Most days it was 10 to 15 degrees above normal. Let's take today, for example. The seasonal high for January 2 is -21C with the low around -30C. Today it got up to around 0C. As I write this it's -1C. Tomorrow it's supposed to go up to +2C and that's going to last for a few days.
We've had times where we would get a couple of days of super mild temperatures and then it would bomb back down to where it should be in the -30C range. But we've barely had any days colder than -20C. I'd wonder how this isn't a bigger story down south, but really, that would require people down south paying attention.
The bay in Iqaluit still isn't frozen, which means it's running on close to two months behind schedule. There are stories like this about it being brighter in the high arctic because all the warmer thermal layers are messing with the light.
I don't know what's going on. Most people up here don't know what's going on. It is beyond weird. And slipping this into #8 and saying "oh yes, it's a little warmer in the arctic and it's probably el nino or something" is not quite doing it justice.
Who knew the end of the world would be....mild.
Last Five
1. 5:15 a.m. - Mark Knopfler
2. The fix is in - OK Go
3. Gravity - Allison Krauss and Union Station*
4. Hammering in my head - garbage
5. Jealous of your cigarette - Hawksley Workman*
1 comment:
It's about the 2010 winter, they're talking about last year's winter. Last year was El Nino (can't do the accent), this year is El Nina.
This year is even wackier though all across North America. I'm in L.A. for the winter and it's been rainier and colder here than normal, and all the southern states are colder. Ottawa is warmer than usual, although I don't think it's as drastically different there as it is for the northern and southern parts of the continent.
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