People throughout central and coastal Labrador have been grappling with warmer than expected temperatures this year, and Environment Canada warns this is looking like the new trend.
Holwell, manager of Nunatsiavut Operations with SmartICE, said so far this year, he hasn’t seen the signs of freeze-up.
An Environment Canada researcher says this warmer start to winter is a double whammy: a product of both climate change and a warm air system currently settling across eastern North America.
“This specific event is just a response to the atmospheric circulation at the moment. It’s just kind of pumping this warm Atlantic air, keeping it over eastern North America,” said Chris Derksen, a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.
The warmer system means higher day-to-day temperatures on top of the long-term warming of climate change.
When it comes to the sea ice, Derksen said “land-fast” ice forms and grows off the coast of Labrador and joins with ice plates that form in the Davis Strait area off Baffin Island. The Davis Strait ice is forming well this year, but so far there’s no land-fast ice yet, he said.
Holwell is also taking more precautions himself and recommending others do the same. He said people have faster snowmobiles than in previous decades and are taking more risks on the sea ice as a result.
Story courtesy of CBC News.