by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 15/97) - Tight budgets and new technology are cutting more and more people out of the weather-forecasting loop.

Weather offices in Iqaluit and Yellowknife were closed last year.

And last week, Environment Canada told 11 of 12 employees at its Whitehorse office they were being transferred, taking early retirement or being laid off.

But at least there's one employee left in Whitehorse. The same can't be said of one of the last weather stations in the High Arctic.

On Wednesday, the last crews to work at the weather station at Mould Bay on Prince Patrick Island left for good.

The changes are the result of dramatic cuts to Environment Canada's budget over the past few years. In 1995 alone, the department was slashed by 30 per cent, and the belt-tightening continues, though at less dramatic pace.

What effect, if any, will these changes have on the reliability of weather reports? That depends on whom you talk to.

"To me it was very important to have forecasts and weather maps and a weather briefer," said Terry Jesudason of Resolute Bay.

Jesudason runs the High Arctic International Explorers Club, which organizes expeditions to points north, such as the magnetic and geographic north poles.

"The weather station here was wonderful. Every morning they used to fax down the forecast for the area," said Jesudason. "It was a great thing to have come in every day, for the base camp people and tourists."

The faxes stopped coming in June, when the service was shut down. Now Jesudason has to call, and pay, for reports out of Edmonton.

Although Environment Canada's level of service have been slashed, Arctic Weather Centre manager Gary Schram says reports are as reliable as ever.

"Although it's different data, there's more data now than there ever was," said Schram.

He emphasized the weather offices at Yellowknife and Iqaluit did not do any forecasting, only distributed weather forecasts assembled at the centre, located in Edmonton.

Schram said that in addition to unmanned, or "automatic" stations, weather data flow in from satellites, weather buoys on the pack ice, and from passing jets, which gauge and transmit temperature, humidity and air pressure.

The information is fed into computers, which use programs to discern patterns that help with forecasting.

But not all airplanes are equipped with devices that transmit weather information.

Asked how many aircraft fly over the Arctic Islands, Schram said, "You'd be surprised." But questioned further, said he did not know.

Environment Canada also gets hourly surface weather reports from people at Alert, Eureka, Resolute, Cambridge Bay, Grise Fiord, Nanisivik, and Inuvik.

"Some of the people doing it are from Nav Canada (the private air traffic control agency), some are from the GNWT and the Arctic Airports program, and some are contractors who could be paid by any of those organizations," said Schram.

When staffed, the weather station at Mould Bay, about 500 kilometres north of Sachs Harbour, released a weather balloon each day. Instruments on the balloons transmitted valuable data about all levels of the lower atmosphere.

The last weather balloon was released May 1. One of the men helping to mothball the station questioned the usefulness of the machines installed to replace the men.

"It went down the other day because of ice on the antenna," said Lorne Novak last week. Novak was among the crew closing the station down.

With the station now closed, however, there won't be anyone around to clean off the antenna should it ice over again.