One of the main winter highways in the Northwest Territories turned into a swamp this week following unseasonably high temperatures.

Deteriorating conditions on the Mackenzie Valley Winter Road have prompted the Northwest Territories government to close the winter highway for the season.

The NWT broke a symbolic temperature barrier as a heatwave continued. There were warnings over ice roads and spoiled meat, and questions about climate change.

Warm ocean temperatures are keeping ice thin, which become easily moved by the wind. This ice movement separates commercial and subsistence crabbers from their gear, and have led to the loss of both crabbing and mining gear.

Wales lost shorefast ice early in the season. Ice along the shore has been crushed and broken. This is a very unusual event for Wales as many of our hunters rely on great ice conditions for whale and other sea mammal catch for food.

“You could take your sailboat and sail from Dillingham all the way to Little Diomede and never see much more than an ice cube.

Two pink salmon have been found near Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., 260 kilometres farther up the Mackenzie River than ever reported.

Birch leaves bud early.

Warm temperatures drive emergence of early willow buds, pollen and honey bee activity.

A moose was seen with some of its fur missing.

Animals cannot forage for lichen under the snow crust on the Yamal peninsula.

There has been a lack of snow in the Golovin area ever since the January 2014 warm spell.

The sea is our garden for food and other things.

Seal with hair loss observed in Bering Strait region