We have had sublime weather so far this summer. It harkens back to the summers when I first arrived up here, before the world forgot that this is supposed to be a desert. Blue skies, punctuated by the occasional cloud, and lately, hardly a breath of wind.
The downside to all this fantastic weather is Arctic Bay has turned to dust. Well not quite, but the air surrounding it has. Dust is everywhere. Our roads up here are mostly made of a mudstone shale, with some gravel in there somewhere. Every vehicle launches a cloud of dust into the air, and with the dry windless conditions the dust just hangs there. Well it just hangs there except for the 100 pounds or so of it that settles onto my truck, or caked in my nasal passages.
There is a lot of traffic right now, this is a busy time. ATVs and trucks move back and forth between Victor Bay at a frantic pace. Add to that the construction of a new sewage lagoon, and road, that means heavy trucks move back and forth steadily between near first bridge and town, and well, a lot of dust gets launched into the air. Where it stays.
Arctic Bay is enveloped in a cloud of dust. Looking from town you can see it back over the bay and beyond. But look back towards town and you can really see it. This is taken over the new airport towards town.
Would it be wrong to ask for a little rain, say on Mondays from 9 to 2? Then we can get back to the bluebird skies.
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It looks like Mars…well without the red tinge…but still. Wow. I’ve always felt like the Arctic looks a lot like Mars and that picture is yet another example.
I guess I would wear a face mask thing so as not to breathe in the dust. You can come down ‘south’ for our heatwave if you want, lol. You’d probably melt though…since you’re used to Arctic temperatures now.
It’s funny, I have people coming to visit me in Arctic Bay this year, and until the past two weeks I’d been telling them “Bring rubber boots. I’m serious, go buy rubber boots”. This past week I cancelled that requirement- what a difference in weather this year from when I was last here in 2006, when the land was a soaked sponge. It’s very parched out there, but the flowers seem to be doing really well. What gorgeous weather for getting outside, too… day after day after day. Good weather for airplanes too! I haven’t paused in over a month to think, “will the plane be getting in today?”
Then Mars must be a particularly beautiful place Melodie. The comparisons between the two places are lost on me, except for perhaps the Haughton Crater, but I’m not even sure about that. The dust, backlit, is actually kind of beautiful, viewed from a distance.
This is what the weather was like my first summer here, and then a couple of more before the place forgot it was a desert. While a little rain wouldn’t hurt, I’m not complaining about constant sunny skies.