NNSL (JAN 06/97) - Weather forecasters are warning that winter's worst is yet to come, or perhaps, it just arrived. Alan Sim at the Cambridge Bay weather station said that record-breaking temperatures last summer and spring got winter off to a slow start.

The highest temperature in Cambridge Bay recorded in September was 12.6 C, much higher than ever before. The average temperature for the same month was a full degree higher than in 1995.

This trend continued into December, with the average temperature going down to just -21C. Sim said this was warmer than usual for Cambridge Bay.

Brian Mottus, manager of the Yellowknife weather station, said that the warm trend that went across the Arctic last spring and summer has now given way to more seasonal temperatures for the North.

"It looks like we're being set up for a cold snap," said Mottus.

While he said that their prediction capabilities are fairly limited, he did maintain that this winter's slow start is no indication that the season will continue along this trend.

Like Cambridge Bay, records for warm temperatures and rainfall were set in Yellowknife last year.

In September, 68.4 millimetres of rain fell, the most ever for the city in one month. Temperatures were also unseasonably warm and over a relatively long period of time.

"It did seem to take a little longer this year to get cold," said Mottus.

However, he warns that the mild temperatures won't stick around the rest if the winter.

"Temperatures generally average out," he said. This means that a mild fall and mild early winter indicate that the second half of the snowy season may be marked by temperatures lower than seasonal norms.

And lower temperatures combined with high winds make for even colder conditions -- referred to as the wind-chill factor that is calculated using wind and air temperature.

But according to Mottus, the trade-off for cold weather now is that it should spell warmer conditions in the next season.

"It will turn into a nice spring," he said.

But until then, we're in for the dog days of winter as many Northern communities found out just last week.