This winter it seems barely a week goes by without a temperature record being broken somewhere in the NWT. Mild, warm temperatures are the norm rather than the exception ever since the first snow -- or should we say freezing rain -- began falling a few months ago.

It's become so commonplace, says meteorologist Yvonne Bilan-Wallace, that when the temperature actually does fall back down into the double negative digits it feels a lot colder than it actually is.

"The normal high for this time of year is about -24 C, so when your high is 1.5 C, and you drop 24 degrees that would seem like (you're in) a deep freeze," says Bilan-Wallace, from the Arctic Weather Centre in Edmonton.

After an amazing start to the new year: 8.8 C in Hay River and 5.2 C in Fort Smith on Jan. 6, Bilan-Wallace predicts much cooler temperatures this week, but as long as warm air continues flow this way from the Pacific Ocean, more heat waves are expected.

Ruby Landry, in Kakisa, says she doesn't mind the warmer weather at all, but did say hunters and elders in the community are worried about what the warming trend means for the future.

"I do like the weather," says Landry. "But I do find in my lifetime that there's changes. It's getting milder and milder, you never know what kind of weather we're going to have."

She said hunters tell her that when it gets too warm, the animals get sluggish and don't roam around too much, making hunting and trapping difficult.

In Tulita, Benny Doctor was preparing to head down to Norman Wells by snowmobile last week, because the ice isn't strong enough to drive a vehicle over the Mackenzie River crossing yet.

"It was always cold before," says Doctor. "About this time it's always -30 C, -40 C, sometimes -50 C, but not anymore. I feel bad for the winter road." Doctor finds it humorous seeing some of the young people complain when the temperature drops to, dare we say, -20 C. "I guess when it is -20 C it's too cold for us, eh?" Doctor laughs. "People say we're cold because we're not use to it."