by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 17/98) - Spring has sprung in the Delta, and with a vengeance.

The same warm temperatures that delayed winter's arrival by six weeks in the fall have come back six weeks early this spring.

In Inuvik on Monday, the temperature ranged from a low of -7 C to a high of 6 C in brilliant sunshine, as it has consistently remained for the past couple of weeks. That is far above normal for the period, which is a low of -22 C to a high of -8 C. It has been the third-warmest winter ever recorded in the Delta and is shaping up as a record-setting spring.

The last time temperatures got this high in early April was 1988, which happens to be the last time the global El Nino weather system pushed warm Pacific air north into the Mackenzie district, which what is happening now.

These warm temperatures have created large puddles of water on the ice roads; could trigger an early breakup and open water on rivers; and has already created large patches of snow-free ground in the tundra, preventing people in town from getting to their cabins or traplines by snowmobile.

"The last couple of winters have been pretty warm," said William Day, an Inuvik elder.

"They just keep getting milder. Must be El Nino, I guess."

Day said river ice has been thin all year. He set nets in the Delta in February and found the ice to be less than two feet thick, which is less than half what it should be, and those at the Aklavik jamboree this weekend also found thin ice for their activities.

The unseasonably warm spring also meant that caribou that usually don't begin migrating until late March left for their calving grounds around the middle of the month.

The snow has all but disappeared from some areas above the treeline and that is creating problems for those attempting to count animals such as muskox. April is often chosen for such work because the animals are active and stand out starkly against the white snow.

"You can't see the muskox against the tundra," said Jerome Slagter, a local pilot who flew a muskoxen survey near Old Crow last week.

He added that snow has all but vanished in the mountains when in past years it has persisted until May.

David Phillips, Environment Canada's chief meteorologist, says according to the weather agency's spring forecasts, we are in for above-normal temperatures and lower-than-normal precipitation until the end of May.

"If you look out your window today, what you see is what you're going to get," he said on Tuesday.

"It seems so convenient just to blame it all on El Nino, but there is no doubt about it, the Western Arctic is certainly feeling the tropical breezes of El Nino."

Abrupt changes like this year's El Nino have been seriously disrupting the lives of rural and Northern areas across Canada, he noted.

"It has a much bigger effect on people's lives there than it does in the cities, because it doesn't affect their livelihoods as much. City people can stay inside and play the stock market or whatever."