A new year has risen and it could mean warmer temperatures for much of Nunavut. Unfortunately for South Baffin residents, their area seems stuck in a cold zone. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo |
Warmer weather forecast for new year
But South Baffin predicted to be stuck in a cold zone for 2016
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, January 11, 2016
IQALUIT
With a new year beginning, Nunavummiut could be in for more pleasant temperatures.
Eastern Nunavut saw average temperatures last year 0.6 C above normal, but it was still calculated to be the coldest year since 1993.
"The vast majority of years and recent decades have been warmer than normal," said David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada.
Iqaluit took the brunt of the cold and averaged almost 2 C below normal temperatures, down to -11.2 from -9.3 C.
May was the only month in 2015 that was warmer than normal in Iqaluit, just over half a degree above the average.
The capital saw 88 days below -30 C, 25 more than the average. The coldest day was on Jan. 26 when temperatures hit -43.1 C and the windchill dropped it to -68 C.
Phillips called it interesting that the cold was consistent throughout the year. Variation in temperature from the norm in summer months is usually rarer than in winter, but last year's July in the capital saw a drop in average temperature from 8.2 C to 4.2 C.
That, combined with a doubling of normal precipitation, led to what Phillips called a miserable month.
In fact, from the first day of summer (June 21) onward, 23 of 25 days in Iqaluit had rain or snow.
For eastern Nunavut as a whole, Phillips said the ice continues to recede.
"It was reported that this year was the fourth lowest extent of ice since satellite records began in 1978," he said.
The year before, 2014, had seen an uptick in sea ice, but last year continued the longer-term trend, which has seen an almost 40 per cent decline in sea ice in the Arctic since the late 1970s.
Cold temperatures in Iqaluit and eastern Nunavut were an oddity on the global scale because the rest of the world experienced an unusually warm year.
For 2016, Phillips said the lasting effects of El Nino should give some heat to the territory. But the Baffin region might continue to be stuck in a cold zone.
"The only area that we're showing cooler than normal is southern Baffin Island," said Phillips about the next few months. "We're showing most of Nunavut warmer than normal."
