There's always been an anticipation of the onset of spring. The end of the few cold months,
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| Sunday Morning's Window Covering |
the strength of the sun against your face, the renewal of nature...the cycles begins once again.
Here in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, we have had the weather of Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick all rolled into three days. You may have wondered why no updates at this web address in the past couple of days. Explanation....digging out as you will see illustrated here.
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| Monday Afternoon only 50 yards away |
Figuratively...not actually. You may have noticed my facebook revelation about the blizzard and how it was affecting us. Well, now that the storm is past. It wound down around midnight Tuesday. It's time to update and tell a few tales of the blizzard that we can label 'The Spring Break Extension'. Last week, both elementary and the high school students had their March Break and classes were set to resume on monday.
The blizzard had been promised to start sunday evening by Environment Canada on Friday, so we had plenty of warning. Sunday was a glorious day with the highest temperatures since last fall. It got up to -2 and the stairs out of the wind and in the sun were actually melting ! Of course, this was after the freezing rain overnight, so it may have been the application of some salt rather than just the temperature difference.
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| A times it clears a bit then strengthens once again |
During a last minute trip to stock up should it actually hit, I met a local who told me he hadn't seen freezing rain in March since the mid seventies. The low pressure area to our northwest meant it was coming and by six the clouds had gathered and the winds began to howl. With all the ice coated snow from the freezing rain, I didn't expect to see much blowing snow as I felt it would be well anchored.
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| Breaking through the drifts again! Wednesday morning early....the 50 yard hydro pole much clearer now! |
Wrong. As the darkness fell and the winds now reached 70 km/hr, there was much blowing snow! ...And the snow continued most of Monday, through Tuesday until late Tuesday night as the winds diminished. Gusts above 140km/hr, steady winds at 100 km/hr...the windows and siding vibrated with the steady pounding. From our second story blizzard observatory, you could judge the visibility by the number of poles visible, one two, three and four...many times more, mostly none.
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| Engine compartments are jammed with drifted, packed snow |
The number of people walking were sparse as was the number of snow machines. There were no quads, cars, or trucks...only large cats with buckets, or bulldozers with blades. Most of the time these were barely visible as they used or cleared the road. Everyone had hunkered down. The nurse on call, their second on call, and the doc on call had all taken refuge at the Kivalliq Health Centre. Hot food, few calls and little sleep on makeshift mattresses til Wednesday morning was their reward.
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| We'll come back with heavier equipment |
Due to the drifting snow throughout the hamlet, the schools, government offices and most businesses were closed. Our water had stopped flowing during Monday, so we had ventured out to the health centre to shower and check in Tuesday. While we waited our turn, I warmed the processor in case we would get called back. Never happened, till the next day. The main road was plowed but not much else as the storm was continuing.
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| Fourteen to sixteen foot drifts carved at the airport parking lot. |
We picked up our drinkable water jugs, I had stored in xray and we were set for the rest of the storm. The rising and falling winds, the hourly updates on the airport website indicating increasing, decreasing wind speeds, visibility and temps and wind chills during the entire storm. While our water taps were not flowing, the two remaining Guinness were appreciated. I can always remember, a good friend and colleague, Terry Collins, with whom I would agree when he would say...we always get some snow during St. Patty's Day...more often than not we did..even if it was only a few flakes.
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| Walking on the hard packed drifts |
By the time the storm subsided during Tuesday night, we knew there was lots of snow around. You had an appreciation from our observatory, but full appreciation occurred before eight on Wednesday morning as we headed into work. The sun was bright, the sky...a clear blue and remnants of the storm were easily recognizable. Arriving at the Health Centre, we found it closed due to road closures caused by drifting. After our shower, and refill of our jugs, we traversed a bit to get an idea of the extent of the storm. Let's just say that after 48 hours, many residents have not been able to extract their vehicles and many houses are using alternative entrances.
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| Two Pickups buried deep |
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Today is Thursday and this was our first day back at the health centre this week...and Spring break was over for the schools. Cars are still buried tonight. Complete engine compartments are packed with snow. Houses and businesses have huge drifts to contend with. The clearing will continue yet for a few days.
In Rankin Inlet, the residents are glad winter is almost over...so the Spring storms...can soon begin.
