Balmy weather in the Arctic 02 March 06

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, has been witnessing some strange weather at her home in Iqaluit, not far from the Arctic Circle in the Canadian province of Nunavut. She writes to a friend of mine, the global warming author Bruce Johansen: “Last night on February 26th on my daughter’s 30th birthday so much rain fell that I woke up to several puddles and pools of water in my tundra backyard and since it was 6 above celius today the puddles/pools were not freezing. There was even lightning last night here in the Arctic on a February night. Much of the snow is melted on the back of my house and all the roads are already slushy and messy. All planes coming up from the south were cancelled because the runways were icy from the rain. I think Pangnirtung has been hit very hard with high winds and again the forecast for them tomorrow is 8 above. One would think we were April already!”

She continues: “High winds are still gusting up to 90 km as I write this and rain is forecasted tonight again. Unfortunately the predictions of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment are unfolding before my very eyes. One of my friends said today the first thing she thought of were the caribou and how hard it is going to be for them to try and get to the lichen under the ice when it gets cold again and everything freezes. She said she was going to encourage her husband to go and get caribou soon while they are still healthy as come spring they will surely be skinny and not as healthy as they normally would had it not rained so much at this time of year and created that crust of ice separating them from their food source.”