Northern Climate Change Schools Program

Introduction

As part of our community outreach project, Baker Lake Science 35 students in their Meteorology Unit used this interview format to gather weather information about our community. The following are the results of their data collection. This data will be presented as a Science Fair Project on March 27, 2002. It will compete to go on the Regional Fair in Arviat April 8-11 and possibly on to the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Saskatoon in May. The students were very active in their data gathering and plan to continue the project as an interactive one at the science fair by continuing to have visitors to their project fill out questionnaires. Included in their project is a look at the globe cloud chart from a traditional Inuit perspective.

Weather Survey

Q 1.  First, I'd like to ask a couple questions about you. How much time did you spend on the land this past year from July 1 to the present?

Responses:

• 14 -- took day trips from town.
• 12 -- took day trips with occasional overnights.
• 14 -- spent a week or more at a time out on the land.
• 2 -- spent more than half of that time out of town on the land.

Q 2.  What age group are you in?

Responses:

• 6 -- less than 30 years of age
• 8 -- between 30 and 50
• 6 -- older than 50

Q 3.  Now I'd like to ask you about the weather in our area. How was the weather this past summer?

Responses:

• 19 -- warmer than usual
• 3 -- colder that usual
• 5 -- about the same
• 5 -- more rain than usual
• 12 -- less rain than usual
• 3 -- about the same

Comments:

• "Once it rained so hard, all the neighborhood kids got scared, I was scared."
• "Summer heat lasts a lot longer even after sunset."
• "Weather seems to suddenly change from nice to bad, compared to 15-20 years ago and a lot less predictable."
• "June and July was unusually very hot, and the weather patterns are very different from 10 years ago."

Q 4.  How was the weather this fall?

Responses:

• 15 -- warmer than usual
• 2 -- colder that usual
• 2 -- about the same
• 2 -- more rain than usual
• 10 -- less rain than usual
• 7 -- about the same
• 1 -- early snow fall
• 19 -- late snow fall
• 3 -- about the same

Comments:

• "Very late snow fall."
• "Autumn seems to be a lot windier than 15-20 years ago."
• "The temperature has been a lot warmer for longer periods."
• "Warmer this fall."

Q 5.  Were there any unusual storms or other kinds of unusual weather? (If yes, please comment on what kinds of storms and when).

Responses:

• "November to January we had 3 straight blizzards."
• "July had lots of rain in a short period."
• "My snow machine was covered with snow. Too much blowing snow."
• "Unusually warm weather in December."
• "Blizzards and storms comes quickly."
• "Yes, first blizzard blew over the south east and piled up unusual snowdrifts around town and at the snow fence."
• "There seems to be many more windy days in the autumn compared to when we live at the land with a lot of rain, Baker Lake used to freeze in early October 15-20 years ago. Every year since around the early 1990's it has been freezing a lot later, about a month later. And the snow melts a lot faster from being so windy all the time in the spring. Back then it would take about 2-4 weeks to melt. In the summer there is less wind and more heat, more mosquitoes, and black flies stay a lot longer. During the winter now a days it snows like southern Canada, back when we live at the land it would never snow, only in the fall and spring."
• "Winter seems very cold and spring and summer is very hot (25-30 degrees plus) for long periods."

Q 6.  Where were you for freeze up this year?

Responses:

• 20 -- in the village
• 0 -- on the land

Q 7.  Did Baker Lake (major water body) freeze up quickly, slowly, not at all, etc?

Responses:

• 4 -- froze-up quickly this winter
• 10 -- froze up slowly or not at all
• 2 -- it seemed like a normal year

Comments:

• "So cold that an elder said that it will melt fast in spring."
• "Froze up very fast this year."
• "Ice is thinner than last year."
• "Ice seems to be thinner in small lakes."
• "Froze up slowly."

Q 8.  How has the weather been so far this winter?

Responses:

• 4 -- warmer than usual
• 10 -- colder than usual
• 0 -- about the same
• 6 -- more windy than usual
• 5 -- less windy
• 3 -- about the same
• 1 -- more snow than usual
• 7 -- less snow than usual
• 6 -- about the same

Q 9.  Is there anything else about the weather you would like to mention?

Responses:

• "Temperature could be -15 for a few days, then -48 for a week and then back to -15 for a few days."
• "It was quite warm until January, then it was cold for 4 weeks."
• "Cold, very cold and windy."
• "Very cold air, just sometimes, but not at all times."
• "It changed really much."
• "Ice seems to be thinner (on small lakes)."
• "During the summer (always) more wind compared to last year and two years ago."
• "More colder this winter."