Photo: Climate change sends new bridge to Cambridge Bay

Supports for this bridge leading towards Mount Pelly near Cambridge Bay were dangerously eroded this past June when torrents of melt water reached the level of the bridge. Now a wider, longer, second-hand bridge from Pangnirtung has arrived in Cambridge Bay as a replacement for the bridge shown here. Ironically, Pangnirtung’s bridge was also the casualty of extreme weather in 2008, when heavy rains and melt water saw the Duval River carve a new course and wash away the earth that supported two bridges in town. Pangnirtung’s bridge has already arrived in Cambridge Bay, but the hamlet is waiting on money from the Government of Nunavut before setting it in place. Meanwhile, the water under Cambridge Bay’s bridge continues to flow, as the community experiences unusually mild and sunny temperatures. On Oct. 4 its high temperature reached 1.5 C more than five degrees above the average of -3.7 C for that day. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)