INUVIK - As the sun beat down on Thursday afternoon, Noah and Haili Vittrekwa and their good friend Elijah Day took turns dousing each other with a garden house and pailfuls of water for good measure.

Yes, they knew it was hot, but knowing another 29.5 C afternoon probably wouldn't be in order for maybe another year, they weren't going to waste their time talking about it.

Noah Vittrekwa gets doused with water by his sister Haili Vittrekwa and good friend Elijah Day as they try to stay cool on Thursday as temperatures skyrocketed near 30 C. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

Noah blurted out, "I love it," followed by Haili screaming, "It's so hot. We get to play outside and have so much fun."

They declined a more detailed interview.

Temperatures soared well above the 19 C average last week, toppling records. Tuesday, July 28 boasted a high of 29.5 C, which was the warmest temperature for that date on record. On Wednesday it got as hot as 30.7 C, Inuvik's hottest July 29 on record. It came just a few degrees short of the town's all-time high of 32.8 C, which occurred on two occasions: June 17, 1999 and July 20, 2001.

Thursday's high of 29.5 C just missed the 1976 record for that day, 31.1 C.

David Phillips, chief climatologist for Environment Canada, said we can thank the desert regions of the U.S. for those surprisingly balmy days.

"I'm a bit surprised that the air has had legs," he said. "It moved all the way up without being modified. There's been no cooling. It came from the west and not from the south. Some summers that just doesn't happen."

Whitehorse set an all-time record for the month of July, on July 29 when the temperatures soared to 33.1 C.

He said the hot air has made its way through Vancouver, northern B.C., then along to the Yukon. Then it hit us.

"British Columbia and Yukon (are) under this ridge of very high pressure, it's very extended and its very huge," he said. "It's flowing eastward and engulfing northern parts of the Northwest Territories, which would include you, and not getting down where the Canadian air is in the southern parts of the Territories."

But while we were enjoying 30 C-plus temperatures on July 29, Yellowknife didn't even break the 20 C mark, maxing out at 19.6 C.

Even on a national scale the results are impressive, Phillips said. Toronto has had only one day this summer where temperatures have hovered higher than 30 C, while Inuvik, if you round to the nearest decimal place, has enjoyed three days at the heralded mark.

Rain levels are also way down in Inuvik. Before Saturday's downpour, Inuvik had received only half of its regular rainfall level for July and in June recorded only 4 mm, compared to the average of 22 mm. That, Phillips, explains is why smoke from forest fires in northern B.C. made it all the way to town.

Summer is far from over too, with temperatures again rising into the 20s for the remainder of the week.

"Our long term models show the warmth continues," said Phillips. "Our forecast for all of the Northwest territories through August is warmer than normal; September and October will also be warmer than normal."