No complaining

There's a rule in Nunavut - don't complain about the weather. Well, you can, but be very careful about when you choose to do that. Mainly because you don't want to be one of those people who come up from down south and complain about it being -30C in February. It's winter. It's the arctic. It's going to be cold. Suck it up.

Now, when it hit -67C with windchill last February, ok, people complained about that. We've been here for nearly 10 years; that's the coldest single day we've experienced here. Last winter, depending on who you talk to, is the coldest winter in Iqaluit since either the 90s or the 70s. So you were allowed to complain about it being a particularly cold winter.

But, for example, snow in May? No. I understand that snow in May in Toronto would be a sign of the apocaplyse. Snow in May in St. John's would be viewed as karmic punishment of that nice day in July the previous summer. Snow in May in Iqaluit is Tuesday.

Snow in June in Iqaluit also isn't exactly a rarel sight. Snow after Summer Solstice is a bit more unusual. Then we had today, in which we had the full gammut of weather. It was raining this morning, then when I came home at lunch, this was the view from my deck.

This was genuinely unpleasant. It wasn't just the snow, there was also wind gusts abround 50 km/h. It also made people who really don't complain about the weather kinda....snap. There were a lot of unhappy people in town. Not sure why...I've seen snow on July 4, but there was something about this snowfall that pissed people off. Perhaps the long, cold winter. Perhaps images of people down south enjoying sunshine. Perhaps too much snow in recent days. There was not a positive vibe in town today.

But then, because it's been that kind of day, this was the view from my deck five hours later.

Yeah, no snow. Lots of sunshine. Beautiful looking day. Weirdness.

By the way, an hour later it was snowing again. I didn't have the heart to photograph that.

You may notice in the background lots of ice and snow. The bay is still fairly frozen. People were still ski-dooing on it the weekend. Found out this afternoon the first sealift boat isn't scheduled to come in now until July 25 because of ice conditions.

It's just been that kind of year. Can't complain...but let's just say I'm looking forward to a vacation.

Last Five

1. DInner bells - Wolf Parade

2. I get along - The Libertines

3. Wait for me (live) - Hall & Oates*

4. The way it was - The Killers

5. Runaway - Maroon 5