'It's a way of deciphering the omens from the sky.'

Wayne Davidson, a weather station operator in Resolute Bay, habitually issues climate predictions for the entire northern hemisphere based on what he sees in the setting sun.

It may seem about as reliable a means of forecasting the future as reading tea leaves or stirring the entrails of animals, but Davidson, who has few scientific credentials, swears he's on to something.

"It's a way of deciphering the omens from the sky," he says.

Indeed, Inuit elders in the High Arctic agree that winters are becoming brighter and the sun appears to rise in different locations, and at different times of the year. However, elders also suggest this is not caused by global warming, but by the impending apocalypse predicted in the bible, and that the Earth is in fact flipping over on its axis.

There's certainly no scientific evidence to back that claim up. And while Davidson presents a clear explanation as to why Arctic winters are becoming brighter, hard-headed academics will also likely disagree with the claim that his theory offers insight into long-term, hemispheric climate trends.

The setting Arctic sun often looks squished, wavy or malformed. It's due to different bands of warm and cool air stacked atop one another over the horizon, which bend sunlight as it travels towards the eye of the onlooker.

Davidson says these anomalies are disappearing as the Arctic warms, and the bands of warm and cool air hovering above the sea and tundra begin to diminish.

However, warm weather in Resolute Bay is no clear sign the entire hemisphere is heating up. The south end of Cornwallis Island may simply be experiencing an usually warm autumn due to ever-shifting air currents. And any scientist would warn a single sample, such as the weather in Resolute, does not necessarily represent a global, or hemispheric, phenomenon.

Regardless, Davidson says the round, undistorted sun he saw several weeks ago is solid evidence for his prediction that the coming winter will be a warm one for the northern hemisphere.

Some may also object that, if anything is a safe bet, it's that the climate will continue to warm. But Davidson objects that there are still doubters of global warming out there.

"This is radical stuff. I'm trying to write a paper on it."

Davidson has few allies for his theory. His employer, Environment Canada, distances itself from his views. Most scientists politely refuse to comment on his ideas. "I speak for myself," he says.

"My peer is the future. There's no tougher peer in the universe."

Davidson is considered an eccentric, even in a place like Resolute Bay. For years he carried a Scottish sword at his side as he walked to work, in order to fend off polar bears. "I don't like guns," he explains.

He still keeps his sword in his office, where a painting of a man being mauled by a polar bear hangs on one wall.

Davidson is in his late 40s, and has lived in Resolute for some 20 years. He spends his days releasing weather balloons and taking different climatic measurements.

And, whenever he can, he watches the sun. He's taken many thousands of photos of the setting sun's appearance in Resolute for seven or eight years now, which may be found at www.ehr2.com, and he plans to keep doing so as long as it keeps him absorbed.

"I'm discovering things on a continual basis," he says. "As long as it lasts."