“The lakes and rivers are starting to get mushy earlier and they become impassable in only a few days. Even before the traditional time of ice melting, the ice is getting dangerous to traverse. The lakes have thinner ice and does not hang around. These days the ice melts earlier and becomes crystallized way earlier where you cannot stand on it.”
“It is very obvious that spring is a lot earlier than before. The month of April is one where I can cite an example of the changes, perhaps by many other Inuit. The month is generally used for the Toonik Time spring festivities. It was towards the end of the month when the festivities were held prior to the new century, but these last few years, due to earlier spring, the festivities have to be moved up by two weeks.”
“[I]n the winter, you used to see the ice fog that would form when it got really cold, past –40C. That is what does not occur as much. It used to be common from January and February. Whenever the wind dies down, the cold would produce ice fog. It never gets that cold in Iqaluit anymore, not for the long stretches that it used to.”
“[In] perhaps 1975, there was a lightning storm that I experienced for the first time further down the bay…nowadays, there are lightning storms every summer down the bay”
“It is getting more unpredictable as to what will happen; because the signs are misleading the Inuit who are used to weather that follows these signs.”
“I have noticed the changes and especially this last year. It has not really snowed at all this year. In that I mean a real snowstorm, and we have yet to experience a blizzard this winter. There are reports of blizzards on the radio, but that is only natiruviaq, a small blizzard, not a real one”
“The snow is really hard now. Although it would not seem to be hard, it would still be all drift snow. And, the snow crystals you would expect to find under this snow, pukajaaq, there seems to be no more occurrences anymore. Perhaps this is due to the wind. Although we find some crystals, they are not the same. Generally, you find them in areas where there is some wind, but also some protection. There is hardly any more pukajaaq snow”
“Most of the areas that we use for our travel are not as useable and due to the lack of snow, they are not really navigable. It has really affected some of the hunters as the lack of snow is hindering the harvesters. Although we would want to go hunting inland, it was getting tiresome waiting for the snow to arrive so that we could use our snow machines to go hunting with. It was quite an unnerving experience especially since this is so unusual to not have snow on the ground for weeks at a time”
“Sometimes the ice would not melt away until late summer, other years it would melt a little earlier, always within the time frame identified by the elders. It used to melt off in July and sometimes in late July here in Iqaluit when we first came here. Other years sometimes it reached into August. I recall one year where it did just that. The ice left in August that year, but nowadays, these last few years, the ice is no longer staying to June even. These days now some families are bringing their boats as the ice now stays only for a short time and then leaves”
“(Sea ice) has really changed, big time. I recall (in my youth) that the ice never used to go out until July. Then the ice would soon reform within a matter of two months. It used to get cold quite early even before November. I recall that we would have ice, really thick ice by November. Usually, by the first week of November, the ice was useable and we could go places. There would be quite a bit of snow on the ground, prior to the ice freezing over.