Closing in

Unsure in yet another feeling of a spring arriving much too early, I can’t decide if it’s just my lack of experience in Whitehorse, and this is the usual here - to be flirting with temperatures around freezing and seeing the outside world melt - or if this really just is the changed way of the north now.

This daytime warmth and melt is a familiarity I used to find in Yellowknife toward the middle of April, so normal or not, this still feels strange.

We’re nowhere close to the end of the aurora season yet, there are plenty of dark nights ahead still - despite that soon the sidewalks and neighbourhood streets will be dry enough for evening roller blades.

In the meanwhile as I write this, it’s +1° outside, with the sun drying up my patio. The warmth of the sun on my skin is easily identifiable and for a moment I wonder if it’s worth throwing off the cover of the patio furniture for a coffee outside.

But the last few weeks have been the closest we’ve had to a real winter this year. Nightly temperatures sunk consistently into the -20s, and low -30s. Aurora chases have taken us from barely outside the city limits to well over a hundred kilometres out in search of clear skies. We’ve experienced everything from the softest nights of the aurora to the absolute most spectacular.

Life gets really busy over these next few weeks, but I’ll be back with more again soon.