Over the past week, the weather up North has been crazy. March is normally still mid-winter here, but Spring has stampeded in like a herd of wild horses. On Tuesday, the temperature in Tulita went up to 17°C… walloping the previous all-time high record of 3.3°C from 1947. Temperatures were consistently 20-25°C warmer than normal across the territory, breaking all sorts of records including the NWT’s first ever temperature reading above 20°C in March (or at least since records began).
The winter road deteriorated rapidly, causing it to be closed first to daytime traffic on the 18th, then warnings that it could close at any moment on the 19th, to a sudden closure for the season on the 20th, almost two weeks earlier than average. Many cars and trucks were stuck along the route and had to be towed or assisted through the slush and mud by heavy equipment, with messages like this being posted to the facebook group:
about 16 big trucks stuck on bottom of black water hill. Approximately 18 to 20 inches of thick slippery mud, 4×4 just sliding around. Mud and puddles from top of black water hill to the junction, lots of potholes, once those heavy trucks tear up the road it will be rougher.
I flew back to Tulita on Monday. As the plane landed in Deline, the pilot announced that we were not in fact going to be landing in Tulita as the runway was a “slush pool”. I ended up getting re-directed to Norman Wells, staying the night there, and flying back to Tulita on Tuesday morning after the runway had been cleared.
We will see if this spring-like weather lasts, or if we will get the rest of the winter that we’re due over the coming weeks.