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Tuktoyaktuk's Kugmallit Bay was filled with open water on Nov. 4 after strong winds pushed its ice out into the ocean. "It's un-freakin-believable," said Mayor Merven Gruben, who snapped this shot before it refroze overnight. - photo courtesy of Merven Gruben

TUKTOYAKTUK
Tuktoyaktuk's weird and unusual weather got a little weirder last week when wind transformed the once-frozen Kugmallit Bay into open water.

"It's un-freakin-believable. It's stupid. I'm just amazed here," said Mayor Merven Gruben.

Strong winds pushed the bay's ice out into the Arctic Ocean overnight on Nov. 3, causing concern in the community that relies on ice roads for transportation in the winter.

"You don't go checking it in the morning. You figure it's there to stay," Gruben said. "I've never seen this happen in my lifetime and I'll be 50 years old next year."

The bay froze overnight once again on Nov. 4, and Gruben said that with strong wind in the forecast, he has his fingers crossed it will stay that way.

The open water in Kugmallit Bay wasn't the only unusual sight residents in Tuktoyaktuk have seen this year.

In July a pair of beluga whales wowed onlookers when they swam right up to shore to feed, and in September an elder had a polar bear swim up to his boat as he was checking his nets.

The beginning of winter was also unseasonably warm, with snowmobile season starting much later than usual.

Dan Slavik, who runs the World Wildlife Federation's new office in Inuvik, said he has also heard about the community's unusual weather.

One possible answer, which won't put residents at ease, is that rising temperatures and changes in sea ice are finally catching up to Northern communities in an all-too-real way.

"The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average, with the past six years being the warmest periods ever recorded in the Arctic," he said.

Summer sea ice is shrinking at a rate of 11 per cent each decade, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, and new minimums are constantly being set.

"These changes in sea ice affect not only the wildlife but the communities dependant on sea ice for hunting, travelling, and shipping," Slavik said.

The Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk ice road opens Dec. 18 on average, though in 1988 it didn't open until Feb. 15.

The earliest it has officially opened is Dec. 2, but snowmobilers and veterans of the ice road often travel it as early as November.

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