Baffin Island gets showered with cold November rain

Baffin Islanders were trading snow boots for rain boots as temperatures in some communities soared above 0 C on Friday and unusually mild temperatures continued throughout the region.

"It's been almost tropical for the past week," said David Phillips, the senior climatologist for Environment Canada.

On Friday, Environment Canada was forecasting the same daily high temperature 5 C for bothPangnirtungand Toronto. Since Nov. 11, Baffin Island has experienced warmer than seasonal temperatures with daily highs reaching -4C instead of -11 C,while westernNunavutwasexperiencing more usual temperatures in the -20 C range

Phillips said the origin of this warm spell is likely from this year's strong El Nino weather pattern.

"The jet stream, which brings us our weather, it looks like a roller coaster. Dipping way down from the west, and then almost just reaching way up to the High Arctic in its return," said Phillips.

"And of course, the result is you're getting American air flowing up through to the eastern Arctic."

Kuujjuaqclosures

The same mild weather made for messy conditions this weekinNunavik.

On Thursday, rainy weather inKuujjuaq, Que.,forced the village to close all of its schools and daycare centres.TheKativikRegional Government offices were also closed.

Slippery roads made for dangerous conditions, slowing down municipal services for water and sewage and people wentback to using four wheelers instead of snowmobiles.

'Rude awakening'

Phillips says thetemperatures so far have not broken any records and bymid-week they will drop back down to belowseasonal, hovering around 19 C.

"I think it will be a rude awakening from this kind of balmy conditions to something that would be more seasonal even though it's cooler than normal."