Yellowknife enjoys mild autumn
'We haven't cancelled winter - it's just postponed'
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, December 2, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
People in Yellowknife who have been enjoying our relatively mild fall may want to make sure they get outside this weekend, because it is forecast to get much colder next week.
Although it was a little colder late yesterday morning than it had been for several days in Yellowknife, even at -10 C the city was still about three degrees warmer than usual for this time of year. Overall, average temperatures for the month were about six degrees milder than normal, according to Environment Canada. - John McFadden/NNSL photo |
The high temperature next Tuesday is predicted to reach a frigid -21 C.
But up until now according to Environment Canada, Yellowknife has been enjoying one of the mildest falls since records were first kept in the NWT about 70 years ago.
David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment Canada, said since October, a large dome of high pressure has been sitting over the western U.S. pushing warm air to the North.
"The average temperature in Yellowknife for November has been -7.6 C. The normal for November is -13.7 C. It's been a good six degrees warmer than it should be in Yellowknife," Phillips said. "It has been balmy."
Phillips said not only has it been milder than usual but the number of really cold days is also down significantly.
"At this time of the year - let's look at minus 20 (C). I think you've had four of those suckers (in November) when you would normally have 11 of those," Phillips said.
"Clearly those raw, bitter days have been missing in action."
Phillips said lower-than-usual snowfall south of 60 has meant warm winds blowing from the U.S. southwest have not cooled dramatically as they move north and that has also been a factor in Yellowknife's relatively warm fall.
"You've been saving money on your home heating bills. It always makes the winter shorter when you can put November into the fall column and not the winter column," Phillips said.
"It's going to change. We know that's coming. Be gleeful of the fact it was one month less this year. We haven't cancelled winter - it's just postponed."
Phillips pointed out a normal high for Nov. 30 would be about -16 C but Yellowknife had a high of -1 C that day.
He added the models are showing moderate temperatures, except for a couple of days next week, should continue into at least the middle of December.
"For the period of December, January and February we'll have a La Nina effect meaning colder water in the Pacific Ocean and colder air. You would normally get a colder than normal winter with that but it is a weak La Nina," Phillips said.
This means Phillips expects a winter somewhat like last year's, when Yellowknife only saw 23 days of -40 C or colder weather. The normal would be to see 47 of those days.
There were 68 of those days in 2014, one of the coldest winters in the NWT in decades.
Phillips said he expects this winter to be somewhere in between the temperatures we saw last winter and the winter of 2014.
He also pointed out climate change continues to be felt in the North far more than anywhere else.
"The average annual temperature has gone up by 2.6 degrees in almost 70 years. Globally, the temperature people use to say the world is warmer now is one degree. If there as any place on this planet warming two to three times faster than the global average - it's clearly the northwest of Canada," Phillips said.
"When old timers say the winters aren't what they used to be they are absolutely right."
