Two Seasons in Twelve Months

In the Yukon we have only two seasons: Winter and Not Winter. It is now the middle of April and winter still lingers due to the voluminous snow levels and temperatures that are only now rising above the freezing mark. The past winter was a return to what they used to be like 50 years ago, when forty degrees below the freezing mark would lay heavy across the land for weeks at a time. Climate change has brought warmer winters and the past 10 years demonstrated it very well with comparatively mild winters with not too much snow, so this current winter was a bit of a shock for the people who had recently moved here.

While the weather patterns are fickle and change on Nature’s whim, the fundamental influences such as the tilt of the earth and the resulting arrival of springtime follow a very reliable timetable based on the movement of our planet. This can produce a bit of a contest as the whimsy of never-ending snow and cold temperatures of localised weather give way to the return of bright hot sun and the resulting meltdown. The month of April is often witness to a very profound change in our weather and can influence some very dramatic changes.

The majority of Yukon communities were established during the Klondike Gold Rush, long before roads were cut through the wilderness. River travel was the primary means of getting from place to place and communities were created on the shores of these routes. Today residents who live on the shores of a river or lake are preparing for flood events by getting their possessions to higher ground and for some planning to relocate until the freshet flood surge is completed in about a month or so. Giant blocks of river ice will crawl up the shore due to the tremendous force of the river flow once it begins to move in earnest. Ice blocks as big as the homes they threaten may occur on some river drainages and may push a house off its foundation in extreme cases.

The snow melt begins long before it can be easily seen. Clear skies permit the sun’s warming rays to warm our exposed skin but does little to melt the snow that is still well below freezing. Short wave radiation, invisible to humans, penetrates the snow surface and bounces up off the frozen ground back to the underside of the snow surface. The radiation ping-pongs in this layer of snow and alters the snow structure making the snow crystalline and granular. When the sun’s energy gets our ambient temperatures to a certain warming threshold, the granular snow melts very fast producing the freshet flow over the ground and into the river drainages. The ground is still very frozen, so much so that you cannot dig a hole with a shovel--heavy equipment is required.

Signs of spring can also be found by the returning migratory birds like Tundra swans, Snow Buntings and Mountain Blue Birds. They arrive before the many other migratory species show up. The swans are arriving in numbers now, the weekend count was estimated to be 1600 of them occupying an early opening of the ice on Marsh Lake where they can access the foods they require. These swans will continue their migration high above the Arctic Circle but must wait for the land and waterways to thaw first so they can acquire nourishment along the way. The blue birds also must wait for insects to emerge as this is their principle diet. Many bugs hatch out of the bark on trees providing sustenance until the snow is melted enough for ground-based bugs to hatch. The great ponds of meltwater will stimulate mosquitos to hatch, providing food for the birds and irritation for humans.

When the ground is once again mostly bare of snow and ice, the annual hunt for the first crocus growing on a hillside begins. Local radio stations promote this hunt and give accolades to the lucky individual who takes a picture of the first purple bloom and submits it. A newcomer once made the grievous mistake of picking a flower as evidence of their find, to which many voiced their displeasure and provided their chastising on local social media channels. I’m pretty sure they won’t do it again.

Some of the most frantic people here right now are the gardeners who already have their inside windowsills crammed to capacity with plant seedlings. Vegetables and flowers of all descriptions are silently waiting to be transplanted into greenhouses and raised planting beds which are currently frozen hard as rock.

Springtime is also baby season, when our local wildlife give birth to the next generations. Some like Wood Bison and Musk Oxen have their young when there is still snow on the ground, but moose, caribou and Mule deer wait until late May or early June. Foxes and Lynx are giving birth in their dens now while bears gave birth about 4 to 6 weeks ago and will emerge from their dens any day now.

As the planet shifts its angle of tilt, we witness the increase in daylight as we advance to summer in the Land of the Midnight Sun. It is our reward for enduring the cold and dark winter. Now in mid April we are witnessing an increase of approximately 15 minutes of daylight each day. Come June the sun will rise around 04:30 and set at 12:10, making for a long day. Parents with small children must resort to taping tin foil to bedroom windows so their kids are not stimulated by the happy and friendly sun and the influence on their circadian rhythms.

Not Winter in the Yukon can be magical, especially if you enjoy the outdoors and clean fresh wilderness paradise. Most of us up here put up with the trials of enduring a frigid winter when vehicles and outdoor machinery fail and home heating costs go through the roof, just so we can be here for Not Winter and the enjoyment of our many outdoor recreational activities. We live in an environment of extremes and most of us take it in stride—once we learn the dos and don’ts of winter survival and getting through a month of seasonal transformation.