Another winter north????

As I write this edition, today is Halloween 2015....and Niagara is scheduled for a high temperature of plus 12 with showers arriving later this evening, once the ghosts and goblins, and all the Elsa's have returned home and are fast asleep. The past week has had rains totaling almost three inches (72mm) on my weather station, but It's been a warmer, and drier than normal, autumn for us.

Wednesday's rain was heavy but the temps were unseasonably warm

As the remnants of Hurricane Patricia's high winds (sometimes gusting up to 100 km. per hour) spread the inclement weather across our 43 kilometer Niagara Peninsula, I was also watching the weather in Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island above the Arctic Circle in Nunavut.

Personal Weather Stations (PWS) reporting on the "Net"

While our storm, locally, shook the trees and bushes and caused their leaves to drop, our fall weather really has spoiled us here....it's been beautiful and Leon tells me he's a bit jealous. Today's temp in Cam Bay was -15 C...But let's step back, bring you up to date, and relive the past three weeks. 

Twice before, I've been asked to fill a temporary placement or locum for the Kivalliq Region Health Centre in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.  As the xray technologist working in the Arctic in the dead of winter, I had an amazing experience...an education in the lives and times of those permanently living in Nunavut Territory....a part of the arctic archipelago and also Canada's newest territory...only formed in 1999...just over15 years ago.

The history of the formation of Nunavut made from subdividing the NWT (Northwest Territory) in Canada's high arctic is well documented and really started with discussions in the mid 70's...and based upon Native land claims. 

Nunavut, CANADA proclaimed a new territory on April 1, 1999

It was April 1st, 1999 when Queen Elizabeth II signed the agreement forming the new territory in Iqaluit, the capital (which had previously been known as Frobisher Bay). The formal ceremonies involved native represenatives, federal, provincial, and territorial delegations. 

The event was broadcast live on CBC. As a matter of irony, I remember watching that telecast live. Who knew I would travel north to the region...not once...but twice. .The first trek north happened in January 2008, but the process started in early November with a phone call.

"We have a need"..."your name was mentioned" ..."our tech will be on leave"..."can you help out our community?"  Emails and telephone calls were exchanged...questions were answered but some answers took time. This was my first of many experiences that indicated things can move more slowly in other places. I've since learned to be more patient as this is a "way of the north".   

It was November 2007 and at that point I had been retired from fulltime employment in the medical xray profession after 37 years at a local hospital. It had been almost three years since I had become a 55 year old retiree and had left my fulltime position. I had completed two seasons working as a starter with a local golf course. I was working as a part-time relief xray technologist for a clinic group and was starting my third christmas season in sales at Henry's Cameras in St. Catharines.

Life was good when I answered that phone call at the camera store, mid-afternoon, when my impressions of our country's northern communities was about to change to another direct experience. The caller had said simply "Hi Bob, Can you help us?".....

NEXT: The challenge is started