The way it was: the winter of of 2020-21 delivered heat to many in Nunavut, Nunavik

/ Jane George / 1 Comment

You could call it Arctic warming: temperatures in Iqaluit, Nunavut were overall  +7 C higher during December, January and February than they were during these same three months between 1991 and 2020, as this map by Patrick Duplessis of Dalhousie University shows.

Duplessis found weather records show that average temperatures over this past winter were up to seven degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature over those same months between 1991 and 2020.

The significant positive anomalies during the winter of 2020-21:

+7 C for Iqaluit

+6.5 C for Kuujjuaq

+5.4 C for Clyde River

+3.5 C for Rankin Inlet

+4.9 C for Resolute Bay

Here you can see the anomalies or temperature variations from the average during the month of February. (Image courtesy of Patrick Duplessis)

February weather helped feed the three-month anomalies in Canada’s Arctic.

In February alone, Kuujjuaraapik and Kuujjuaq showed an increase of more than five degrees C over the normal average temperatures for the month. Iqaluit had a 7.5 C degree increase and Resolute Bay was 2.7 C warmer.

Also during that month, new records for daily high temperatures were set in Baker Lake, Gjoa Haven, Resolute Bay, Grise Fiord, Pond inlet Rankin Inlet and Arviat.

Three-month anomalies fed by record-breaking daily Arctic weather in February

In Naujaat, the temperature topped off at -5 C on Feb. 8 beating the previous old record from 2010 was -14.5 C.

And on Feb. 9 a high of -11.7 C in Resolute Bay set a new record high that date, The previous record was -13.9 C in 1960.

Feb. 11 also saw records tumble in Nunavut’s most northerly community of Grise Fiord where the high temperature of -6 C beat the old record of -10 C set 35 years in 1986. And in Grise Fiord it grew even warmer on Feb. 12, with the high of 2.5 C beating the old record of -9.6 C from 2011.

As well, in Kuujjuaq, record highs and lows were dropped on Feb. 6: the maximum temperature reached -0.2 C (old record  -0.6 C set in 1958) and the minimum temperature was only  -3.7 C (old record of  -11.1 C set in 1958.)

Heat in the Arctic, cold to the south

Meanwhile, amidst these warmer than usual Arctic temperatures in mid-February, the southern continental United States saw frigid weather that produced big snowfalls over Texas, paralyzed much of the southern states and led to the death of nearly 80 people.

The cause: a meteorological event which meteorologists call a Sudden Stratospheric Warming Event. This one was located about 30 kilometres over the North Pole, said the World Meteorological Organization.

The warming event led to a weakening of the polar vortex, an area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the North, the WMO said.

And this weakness allowed the cold air to slip down into the mid-latitudes and warmer air to enter the Arctic…

My best Arctic trips, Part 5

/ Jane George / Leave a comment

And so on this journey in 2006 from southeastern Finland to the top of Arctic Norway I ended up at Riddu Riddu, Norway’s annual Indigenous music and culture festival, about which I have written before here.

In 2020, there was no Riddu Riddu, due to the pandemic.

But when I went to Riddu Riddu in 2006, its program showcased everything from “polar ska,” “Ainu dub,” “tribal funk” to “ethno-futuristic rock” played by Indigenous groups from Norway, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Siberia, South Africa, Greenland and Alaska.

And, for me, it wasn’t so much a life-changing experience as a life-affirming one as late into the night I listened to music with new and old friends.

Ayarhaan, which means “the tribe of the creator” or, as Riddu Riddu’s program said, “girl power from Yakutia,” took the festival by surprise.

Ayarhaan’s wildly traditional music combined elements of of traditional throat singing and Jimmy Hendrix. Their home, Yakutia in central Siberia, is a place where temperatures range from -40 C in winter to 30 C in the summer, an extreme sort of place that produced their extreme version of throat singing.

“To survive you have to be strong, so you can hear the strength in the music,” said Albina Degtyareva, the group’s lead singer. “In Yakutia, you can feel and hear the power inside you.”

Her mouth harp, or “khomous,” looked like a pair of scissors with a metal tine sticking through the middle. Yakutians traditionally use the khomous, which was said to have been made by gods and possess a magical voice, to accompany their throat singing.

Ainu musician Oki Kano, below, performed a dub-like mix of the tonkori and double bass. His “Salmon Song” about returning to your roots is still on my playlist.

“I urge all indigenous youth to return to their villages,” Oki said before singing his wild “Salmon Song.”

“Many Japanese are supporting Ainu rights, and although there is more awareness, there is still racism. Racism exists on two levels, one is the everyday kind of racism at school, or say when Ainu want to marry a Japanese and the parents are opposed to it. The other level is on the government level.

“The government is very clever though, and makes the Ainu lifestyle the same as for Japanese, although Ainu have a lower income and standard of education. The government can then say they are supporting the Ainu, without giving us rights, such as fishing or land rights. So we have to do something, and that something is music,” said Kano in an online interview.

And award-winning singer and songwriter Maire Boine, below, who brought Saami yoik to another level, also performed. (BTW her album, one of my favourites, called Gula Gula, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.)

And so it went on.  82-year old Ivvar-Niillas performed yoik… a Maori singer filled the stage…as did Pamyua from Alaska…

And then the show was over and it was time to travel south.

When I got back to Finland, the sun was already setting at night, summer was nearly finished and I went back to Canada.

If you missed the earlier parts of this best Arctic trip, you can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

And why did I write all this? Maybe to go beyond the restrictions of COVID-19 and to remember who I am?

My next best Arctic trip date may bring us to Greenland or Iceland…