Nunavut communities on track for warmer than normal summer
'What you are seeing this summer, I don't think it's a one-off,' says meteorologist David Phillips
The summer isn't over and so far people in many Nunavut communities have been feeling the heat.
"June, July and August for most of Nunavut has been warmer than normal, in some cases consistently warm," said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
He said that's especially true in Pond Inlet, Clyde River and Resolute. Alert also made headlines last month when it hit 21 C — warmer than Victoria, B.C.
When meteorologists look at their models, they are seeing more of the same for the rest of August and September, with many Nunavut communities on track for a record-breaking summer.
Iqaluit was a bit of a different story in July, where despite some near record-breaking days with temperatures in the 20s, the city was cooler than average. It has to do with the ice in the inlet, Phillips said.
Nothing is normal anymore and that is no more clear than in the Arctic.- David Phillips, meteorologist
"Air and water currents push the ice into the shoreline and then all of a sudden that southerly, balmy air disappears because any warm air that moves over that ice is chilled, so it arrives refrigerated."
Phillips said the warmer-than-usual weather is the new normal.
"What you are seeing this summer, I don't think it's a one-off, it's not an outlier. It is clearly abnormal, but what we know in the future is to expect the unexpected," he said.
"Nothing is normal anymore and that is no more clear than in the Arctic."