Air conditioners come to the Arctic

KUUJJUAQ — Climate change is changing policy: this is the first summer that workers in Nunavik’s official buildings and businesses will be allowed to cool off with air conditioners.

That’s because Quebec’s energy office has finally changed a policy that prohibited the use of air conditioners in the region.

The idea behind this policy, said Hydro-Québec spokesperson Mathieu Boucher, was to reduce the amount of diesel fuel burned in Nunavik’s power plants.

However, in Feb. 2006, La Régie de l’Énergie approved a request from Hydro-Québec to let its commercial and public clients use air conditioners above the 53rd parallel.

In preparation for a hot summer ahead, the Northern Village of Kuujjuaq had already ordered a bunch of new air conditioners, which arrived before last week’s heat wave.

A good thing, because at 3 p.m. last Thursday, temperatures in Kuujjuaq hit 29°C, breaking the previous record for this date of 26.1°C set back in 1974.

The normal average daytime temperature in Kuujjuaq on June 8 is 10.7°C.

Not that long ago, snow often fell in Kuujjuaq even in early June. About six centimeters of snow fell on June 8 in 1969 — and in 1985 there was 13 cm of snow on the ground in early June.

Kuujjuaq hasn’t been the only community in Nunavik to feel the heat, either.

Last Wednesday, people in Kuujjuaraapik sweltered in 31.1°C temperatures.

The nighttime low of the previous night was 8.1 C.

As a comparison, consider that the average temperature in Kuujjuaraapik on June 7 is 11°C during the day and 1°C at night.

Temperatures continued to reach well above 20°C up the Hudson Bay coast, all the way to Puvirnituq.

The normal daytime temperature for this time of year in Umiujaq, where it hit 28°C last Wednesday, is about 10°C.

According to Environment Canada meteorologist René Heroux, last week’s record-breaking temperatures are a sign that warmer weather patterns are moving north into Nunavik and another indication that the climate is changing and warming.

To the south of Nunavik, higher-than-normal heat followed by violent thunderstorms led to a raging forest fire near Mistissini and caused the evacuation of the Cree community of 3,500.

Environment Canada says northern Quebec, as well as southern Nunavut, have all experienced temperatures at least 5°C above normal during the spring.

In Nunavik, the temperature was 2.5 degrees warmer over this past winter, and at least two times the amount of precipitation fell along the Hudson Bay.

The warmer winter and spring will now likely lead to a hot summer in Nunavik, Héroux said.