Arctic Circle snags some of Canada’s hottest weather to start July

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An impressive Arctic heat wave will continue this week as extremely warm temperatures bathe communities around and north of the Arctic Circle.

Inuvik, Northwest Territories, already hit 30°C this weekend, and the town is on track to hit the 30-degree mark a few more times this week.

The town of Norman Wells, a few hundred kilometres to the southeast, is on track to hit 30°C just about every day this week.

NorthTemps

This impressive streak of warmth could rival the community’s longest recorded streak of high temperatures of 30°C or warmer, which stands at nine days back in 1982, according to The Weather Network meteorologist Kevin MacKay.

Seasonal high temperatures in Inuvik come in around the mid-teens for the beginning of July.

rexblock

This unusual stretch of Arctic heat is the result of a rex block that’s parked over the western half of Canada. This pattern occurs when an upper-level low gets caught beneath an upper-level ridge, essentially acting like a logjam in the jet stream.

While communities beneath the upper-level low deal with a stretch of rainy weather and below-seasonal temperatures, folks under the ridge to the north are dealing with much warmer-than-normal readings for many days on end.

anomalies

The heat may feel good, but it’s certainly not all good news. The abnormal warmth has allowed for occasional rounds of thunderstorms to pop up across the north, sparking lightning-induced wildfires through interior Alaska and the Yukon. The warm air is also leading to a rapid breakup of sea ice across the region.

The ridge responsible for the heat will slowly slide east through the middle of July, allowing the warmth to spread over Nunavut over the next two weeks. Temperatures could come in more than 20 degrees above seasonal for parts of Nunavut as this impressive spell of northern heat continues.

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Thumbnail courtesy of Unsplash.