Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Hay River (Oct 28/02) - Halloween in the North - the weather, at least - is completely unlike the night portrayed in popular culture.

Lydia Clarke, the lead supervisor at the Northern retail store in Hay River, shows the necessities of Northern trick-or-treating -- a costume and warm underwear. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

On TV and in movies, Halloween is an often pleasant fall day in which trick-or-treaters kick their way through recently fallen leaves.

But it is Oct. 31, meaning what is autumn in the South is winter in the North.

Here, parents have to make sure their young trick-or-treaters are ready for any kind of weather.

One such parent is Val Robertson, who has lived in Inuvik for 30 years.

Robertson's two children -- Rebecca, 11, and Andy, 13 -- have grown up trick-or-treating in Inuvik.

Along with reflective costumes, the necessities of safe Northern trick-or-treating include gloves, hats, winter boots and warm clothes under costumes, Robertson says.

She says parents will also often follow their children in vehicles. Not only does that provide extra safety, but it allows some refuge for the children if the temperature is really low. "They can warm up when they need to."

Lydia Clarke, the lead supervisor of the Northern retail store in Hay River, says people buy Halloween costumes with cold temperatures in mind. "That's why we don't carry small sizes, because they have to cover coats, ski pants and ski jackets."

In the North, there can be an extreme range of temperatures on Oct. 31.

Inuvik hit its record low for the day, a chilly -32.8 C, in 1989. Yellowknife at

-27.3 and Fort Smith at -27.9 both hit their record lows for the day in 1984. Iqaluit's record low of -26.1 goes back to 1972.

On the optimistic side, Fort Smith hit a balmy 10.3 on Halloween in 1978 and Yellowknife is not all that far behind at 7.7 in 1978.

The average Oct. 31 temperature is -7.5 for Yellowknife and -15.8 for Inuvik.

As for snowfall, in 40 of the last 59 years a trace or more of snow fell in Yellowknife. The greatest snowfall was 12.7 centimetres in 1975.