The Big Thaw

So the weather outside right now in Iqaluit is +2C with it possibly spiking as high as +6C before the day is over. There's fog hovering over the city and we're getting sporadic bits of drizzle and rain. The date, for those who might have forgotten, is December 18. Normally the high for this day would be -19C with a low around -28C, however it seems we're breaking with tradition a bit today.

Oh, and it's also one of the shortest days of the year. Sunrise today was at 9:20am and sunset is only a few hours away as I write this at 1:42pm. So on one of the days when we will have the least amount of sunshine or daylight, it's balmy up here. In case people in Edmonton were wondering where their warm temperatures went when they were being flash-frozen earlier the week with temps around -50C, it apparently moved up here for a few days. Thanks.

All of this and I get to read headlines from the Globe and Mail about how the climate change talks in Copenhagen are a "Dismal failure". Good timing on that, guys.

Believe it or not, this is not the strangest weather day I've experienced in Nunavut. For that we have to pop into the wayback machine and travel back in time to February 27, 2006, when the temperatures hit +5C. I wrote about that here. Funny thing....I was told by several people that it getting so warm at that time of the year was a massive fluke occurrence. If not a once in a century type event, then certainly a once in every 50 years type of thing. I'd likely never see something like that again during my time in Nunavut.

And, less than four years later, here we are again. Funny how those decades just fly right on by, eh?

This warm weather has two other things I'm going to mention. When I went to see the doctor earlier the week we were making some small talk. Even then people around town knew there was the possibility of getting something like this on Friday. And, in a rare fit of competency, Environment Canada got this one right. Anyway, she said she was dreading it. Because it's not like this weather is going to last. At some point late on Saturday and certainly by Sunday, the regular cold is going to come back and bitch slap this warm weather system all the way down to the Carolinas. And then all the slush and pools of standing water are going to freeze solid.

That means the hospital is going to get bombarded with slip and fall injuries and lots of broken bones. So if you live in Iqaluit, watch out for yourselves this weekend. It's going to get tricky.

The second unintended consequence of this warm weather is that the snow that is already down is melting. Duh, I know. People using snowmobiles are going to be unhappy. For us, however, it displayed that we are bad neighbours. We've been letting Boo out when he needs to do his "business" and he's been pretty good about nipping out, taking care of things and then coming right back in. However, he's been doing it in front of our neighbours house. No problem when the snow is falling and covering up the crime, slightly bigger problem when it's all melting.

So I had a knock on the door this morning from the next door neighbour asking if I wouldn't mind going and cleaning it all up. Oooops. And was then told it would be much appreciated if the dog would stop doing that on their property.

To be fair, they have three kids and we shouldn't be letting the dog do that. We just got lazy. So it's to Plan B. Whatever that is, and it'll have to wait until after we get back from Christmas holidays. Hopefully the neighbours won't burn the house down in retaliation while we're away.

Last Five
1. Gone to hell - Sean Panting*
2. Across the universe - Fiona Apple
3. Big wheel - Tori Amos
4. Possession - Sarah McLachlan
5. Lucinda/Ain't goin' down (live) - Tom Waits