The Local Weather Report- Brrrr

Being a teacher for over 30 years, I have always had a keen interest in the weather over the winter months as I followed the chances for a snow day. During our time in Churchill, I find myself visiting the weather website frequently, trying to decipher what I should probably expect in the upcoming 24 hours. The website used up here is Weather Canada, and the local weather station is located at the Churchill Airport. In northern Canada, the reading for windchill is more important than the temperature, as it is a better indicator of the kind of clothing you need to wear to keep you safe.

Given the extreme cold, the weather has been on everyone’s mind up here. On Wednesday of this week, it was -68 degrees with the windchill! That is a personal record for my time up here, but then again, I don’t get much credit since I stayed inside. Maybe I get some credit for being smart, though!

 For a short period during the extreme cold, every tree branch was covered in frost.

I thought I would start with some of the most common (and my favorite) weather conditions. The most common weather forecast up here, along with sunny or light snow, is a forecast for ice crystals. Some days, that is all the forecast says. Sounds delightful, but what does it mean?? Here is a definition I found on one of the weather sites.

Ice Crystals- A barely visible crystalline form of ice that has the shape of needles, columns or plates. Ice crystals are so small that they seem to be suspended in air.

Well, that is interesting, but not too helpful in figuring out what I can expect when I step outside. I can tell you a couple of interesting facts about ice crystal forecasts though.  First, you can expect to see great sun halos, moon halos, sun columns, and sun dogs.  Also, on a clear night I see surprisingly few stars, considering how little light pollution there is. Our director at CNSC was explaining to me that this is due to ice crystals in the air. In other seasons, there are more stars on clear nights.  Of course, we can see all of the major stars and constellations, making it actually easier to read the nighttime sky.

Sun Pillar from last year

Sun halo with sun dogs

In addition to the ice crystal forecast, sometimes the forecast is for ice fog. Look below for the definition of that. To me it sounds very similar to ice crystals. Sometimes it does look foggy out there, and that must be ice fog (if it isn't blowing snow).

Ice fog- a suspension of numerous minute ice crystals in the air, reducing visibility at the earth's surface; the crystals often glitter in the sunshine; ice fog produces optical phenomena such as luminous pillars and small halos.

Sundog at Sunrise

Snow sculpted by the wind

The other big favorite in the forecast is “Blowing snow”, or “Locally blowing snow”. Given our consistent strong winds from the NW,  the snow is often blowing. The forecast for locally blowing snow always had me puzzled, but I have it on good authority this year that it means blowing over the open areas. In Churchill, this includes the tundra, the town, the road out to CNSC, and really everyplace except the boreal forest. The trees block the wind and the snow builds up there. We are down to bare gravel on the CNSC driveway, but in the area with trees, it can be 2 meters deep! Wear your snowshoes for sure if you are going for a walk in these woods.

In the winter time, the high point of weather excitement comes with the word blizzard! Now that is a weather term we New Englanders recognize. However, the north puts its own spin on the meaning of blizzard. As I learned a few days ago, you can have a blizzard with no snowfall! Up here, it is a combination of cold temperatures, high winds, and very low visibility due to those strong winds. So, it is our blowing snow that creates the visibility issue, and the drifts cause all sorts of problems for any vehicle on the road. Wikipedia uses the term ground blizzard for this phenomenon, but I do not see that term used on any Canadian weather sites.

This is a photo from last year which shows the piece of equipment used to clear the roads. It's really a giant snowblower. When snow accumulates on the roads due to snowfall and wind, it is first plowed to the center, and then this machine blows it all to the sides. If they were to just plow, then the snow banks would trap more blowing snow and the drifts would get worse. This year they trimmed all the willow bushes along the road to CNSC, and the drifts are much less noticeable. It does not take much to catch the snow.

On Tuesday, the skies were sunny, and the air was cold. That was the prediction for the next 24 hours. Four hours later, we were told there was a blizzard coming, and it did! Even in New England, we get more warning than that. Not only that, we had another blizzard yesterday, this time with 2 cm of snowfall. We're waiting for that to clear out right now.

So, how about weather for the aurora? The most important conditions are clear, dark skies. Then, a little plasma from the sun zipping along in the solar wind would be very helpful!
The sky is clearing as of 11:00 pm. Perhaps there will be a delight in the sky tonight. Here is a favorite from last year.