Happy Trails: July 2018

In what was just over four years since I first stepped off the Twin Otter inbound from Resolute Bay onto the icy tarmac in Eureka to work for CANDAC operating the PEARL facilities, I was back again. This time, to work for Environment and Climate Change Canada as a weather observer. December 2017 was the start of a three month tour in dark season for me. Not my first dark season tour, but this time the workload was different. Instead of driving around in the red pickup truck checking on the various labs within the PEARL network, I was working in the weather office at the Eureka Weather Station, performing hourly weather observations, prepping and releasing radiosonde balloons, conducting bi-monthly snow coverage surveys and ice thickness surveys on Slidre Fjord. A bit of a difference in my daily/weekly work routine from the last time I was in Eureka, but that was the reality of the new job. It was a familiar feeling arriving back to the north, having spent three years working there before.

It was my second Christmas in the arctic, the first being in Alert back in 2012. The station staff all celebrated with small gifts for each other, and a big meal on Christmas Day. Two of us had to work on Christmas and Boxing Day to cover the shifts in the weather office, but the others had a couple days off to relax and call their families down south.

As New Years Eve rolled around, we commenced an enhanced observing program. We operated the weather station 24 hours a day, and increased the radiosonde balloon releases from two per day, to four per day...one every six hours. This enhanced program was in support of the WMO's global initiative for the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP). Link: YOPP Eureka was among many other stations globally that provided support to this enhanced observing program.

One of the best parts of enduring a dark season in the high arctic is the pending first sunrise. As the sun slowly creeps back to the north, it unveils more and more of the frigid landscape and the beauty that comes with it.

In early March my Eureka tour was finished, and it may have been the last time I get to visit the high arctic. It was good to be back in Eureka again, and experience the arctic life once more. After learning and experiencing as much as I have been able to since I first ventured north, it was a great way to say farewell.

As the first official days of sunlight arrived, we flew south to Yellowknife, where I overnighted before flying back to Edmonton. Only to start the next chapter of life, slightly east of Alberta.