Blizzard Watch

Cambridge Bay, noon, January 7, 2015

Friday, January 9, 2015
Happy New Year! We've been hunkered down in a total whiteout for almost a week now. We thought this was a normal January blizzard, but, apparently they don't usually last this long and it's been quite a while since there's been one this severe. Constant winds to 80 km/h, wind chills well into the -40C's, this is what we thought an Arctic winter would be like! There is new snow falling in addition to that already on the ground. It's so dry and fine and is driven with such force, it plasters everything with a stucco-like coating. There's nothing to stop the wind, not a tree for probably a thousand miles in any direction, it just howls across the tundra and down the barren streets whipping the snow into huge clouds.

With zero visibility, the airport has been closed since Monday, schools and offices since Tuesday. Employees trying to get to the 24/7 DEW (distant early warning) line station and weather forecasters trying to reach the airport monitoring station, just 1-1/2 miles out of town, are escorted with front end loaders and the normal five minute drive is taking almost an hour. The airport is the only way in/out of here, so, that means no mail and no food deliveries are coming in. If there is a medical emergency requiring evacuation, you're just out of luck and will have to wait.

Thankfully the generator is still running on Tandberg Polar and the town's power has stayed on as well. As we're not starting the main engine on TP right now, we decided to bag up the large, open exhaust cowl as we were worried about too much snow getting packed down the pipe ultimately getting into the engine. We are also a bit worried about Gjoa, but, will be unable to go out to the tank farm and check on her until visibility returns. Winds are mostly from the NW, so, won't be hitting her beam-on at least.

Winds and snow are supposed to ease off today. Clearing the snow will be a job as the drifts are as hard as cement. The sun is returning above the horizon on Sunday. Hopefully it will be a clear day, so we can see it. Since the solstice, we are already noticing an extra twenty minutes or so of daylight on each end, it's now light between about 0940 and 1420 each day. It can only get better now!