Wearing of the "WHITE!"

A Happy St. Patty's Day from the great white north!

It's been a snowy day here in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. No...let me rephrase and tell it honestly.  The past 48 hours and continuing into the night, we have had a blizzard. Snow is something, but couple that with howling 87 km/hr winds gusting well over 100...and continuing the entire two days AND NIGHTS... now that's a blizzard.

The wind has been blowing from the same direction (from the west--the direction of the airport) the entire time. During the daylight hours yesterday the sun was actually poking through and added some extra depth of visibility but that faded fast. According to Environment Canada we ended at times with two tenths of a kilometer of visibility...most of the time the weather has stated zero visibility.

Environment Canada latest weather monday a.m...and the winds INCREASED!

I have been counting visibility by the number of hydro poles I can see from the bay window. During the storm the best visibility has been four poles, the worst...less that one. The difference from this blizzard and my record winning one from January 2008 is that I can seeout a bay window, have a street to watch, and we have had power the entire time. So, we also have heat and water, although a trickle, continues. Internet has been quite good considering the stress everyone in town must be putting on the resources here.

With digital enhancement our road drift being cleared yesterday

Satellite TV has been intermittent at the times of the heaviest snowfall, as is normal with satellites. The sunspots, this time, are not to blame. The difference, here, is that I have nothing pre-recorded to view when its not working. Thankfully, those times have been few and far between.

With my viewing limited somewhat, I have developed an appreciation of the efforts of the Canadian border security people and their counterparts in Australia.  If you have ever watched the program, people are trying all kinds of ways, to bring illicit and illegal weapons and goods into our country. Then there are those, who can only be classified as "you can't cure stupid". 

An Irish Lunch....Chips, Dip and Guinness

But it's St. Patrick's Day. The weather at home may be greening...but that's only a wish for the future here. Spring may be only days on the calendar but it might as well be a Irish pipe dream away. To celebrate the day of the green, I brought up four cans of Guinness. The final one to be devoured with my supper.As I said on Facebook earlier, three are now a memory and last is but, a dream.

This is a dry town. There has been some movement on having beer and wine available in the grocery stores and that may happen soon. At the moment those commodities and hard liquor must be ordered from the capital across the Bay. I have no idea of the process nor the price, but rest assured it will arrive by plane...and the prices will also reflect that.

The road gets scraped on Sunday

The storm continues. So, for the second day in a row, we have been weathered at home. The storm continues with 70 plus km/hr winds and, although visibility is now two poles, darkness will soon arrive. Yesterday, we had the road crews through to handle the drifts that are throughout the hamlet. In this part of the country they know how to handle snow.

 On Sunday, after the freezing rain, a grader came along and scrapped off the ice coating. Actually, what he did was just scrap down to a new layer of snow, which was much less slippery. The application of gravel is much more common, but used sparingly as it tends to blow on the polished streets. Salt is not applied. Gravel is found locally and does not have to be imported.

As the weather continues, it's time for the Guiness and my Irish stew, but the platter looks more like spaghetti and meatballs. Here in the north you accept substitutions, without question.
In Rankin Inlet, we are celebrating spring this friday, but only on the calendar. Currently, we are experiencing winter at its highest level.

The warmest of mitts

In february, Wiarton Willie had predicted six more weeks of winter...but that ended yesterday! The blizzard weather continues with strength and veracity. The people here would love to have some warmer weather arrive soon. You could see that Sunday morning when the temperatures rose to a high of -2C. The Inuit people have a certain way of dealing with the weather. They tolerate and adapt, but at this point the general feeling, in this town, would be that Wiarton Willie would make a fine pair of mitts.