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Striking Twice On August 22, 2021 residents of Iqaluit were amazed to have a front row seat for a thunderstorm, and to actually see lightning striking the ground outside of the city. Nunatsiaq News published the story, Lightning strikes shock Iqaluit. For lightning to occur it takes both heat and humidity, two things that are uncommon in Nunavut and in most parts of the circumpolar north. For this reason, thunderstorms and lightning have historically been rare. Last week lightening stuck again, not just in Iqaluit but also in other areas of Nunavut. Arctic Today reported multiple strikes as far north as the Queen Elizabeth Islands and as far south as the middle of Hudson Bay. This has already been an unusual summer for storms all across the North. A review of posts in LEO Network finds that "thunderstorms" was the third most frequent category of unusual event. Lightning strikes are becoming more common and part of the new normal in the north. Incidentally, the most frequent category this summer is "wildfires." Also making the news this week, the unprecedented heat wave in Europe. See the article by Thomas Nilsen of the Barents Observer about the heat wave bringing record temperatures to the European Arctic. From the LEO Resilience Desk, please see the article by Ainslie Cruickshank of the Narwhal about the return of marine life to intertidal areas of British Columbia, devastated by the heat waves of 2021. Mike Brubaker, Editor

Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada
Krestia DeGeorge / ArcticToday / July 14, 2022

Nunavut is being hit with lightning from top to bottom because a “pretty significant heat wave” created the right conditions for a phenomenon that’s ordinarily uncommon in the North, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada says. Since Saturday, there have been reports of lightning strikes as far north as 79 degrees latitude.

Read article on ArcticToday



Skibotn, Troms, Norway
ArcticToday / June 29, 2022

Temperatures surpassed 30 degrees Celsius across northern Scandinavia on Wednesday and many meteorological stations hit new record high temperatures for June. The thermometer in Saltdal, northern Norway, reached 31.6 degrees C. Further inside the Arctic Circle, at 69 degrees north in Skibotn east of Tromsø, the temperature was 31.7 degrees (89 F).

Read article on ArcticToday



Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
Sveriges Radio / Sveriges Radio / July 15, 2022

Bird flu may be the reason behind a drastic decrease in the number of peregrine falcons in Sweden this year. Every year there is a stock count of the number of peregrine falcons in Sweden and this year early numbers indicate there may be a big drop in the number of birds counted.

Read article on Sveriges Radio



Portland, Maine, United States
Press Herald / July 5, 2022

The rate of dead seal strandings in Maine is about three times the normal rate for the summer and is close to 60. Most of the seals that have been stranded this summer have been found dead, NOAA said. The dead seals have included gray seals and harbor seals.

Read article on Press Herald



Larissa Kyzer / Iceland Review / July 16, 2022

The ubiquitous midge is almost completely absent from Mývatn, the pointedly named ‘Midge Lake,’ this year. Árni says this happens every seven to nine years—it’s now been about eight since the last time the midge population collapsed. As a result, the bird population will be much smaller for the next two to three years.

Read article on Iceland Review



Hamina, Kymenlaakso, Finland
News / July 15, 2022

Harju said that due to its long tusks, she guessed that it was an older walrus, adding that the animal was calm during the hour that she watched it lay on the beach.

Read article on News



Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Ainslie Cruickshank / The Narwhal / July 11, 2022

One UBC scientist says his early estimation that a billion creatures died from the 2021 heat dome was too low. Today, life is returning to areas scorched by last year’s unprecedented heat wave. The die off was patchy and the plants and animals in the intertidal zone that survived the heat wave “are the parents to the next generation,” Harley said.

Read article on The Narwhal



The Northern Climate Observer is published by the Center for Climate and Health. We track news coverage from across the circumpolar north and provide readers with a curated roundup of climate change related events. Thank you for reading our newsletter and for paying attention to our changing world.

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Northern Climate Observer

The Northern Climate Observer is published weekly by the Center for Climate and Health. We track news from across the circumpolar north and provide readers with a curated roundup of climate change related events.

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