Blizzards: They Blow!

Well, we survived our very first blizzard in Nunavut. It made me realize that any "storm" we had in Ontario was small beans compared to what an actual blizzard can be...and the one we got was considered relatively mild! I can only imagine what else is in store for us the rest of the winter.

Wednesday afternoon we started getting warnings that Baker Lake was under a "winter storm watch" and by late afternoon it was officially upgraded to "blizzard watch" for Thursday. There was an air of tension and a little excitement all around, and everyone was talking about it.

A group of us piled into the truck and went to the Northern to stock up on food and supplies in case the storm was longer than the prediction of a day (apparently last year it was so volatile that the warning could say 1 day but it lasted for 3). I stocked up on fresh produce like it was Y2K prep - (plus I figured it would save me having to go later next week.) Maximum efficiency here, people!

Wednesday comes and go and it started to get pretty cold and snow started to fall...but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I was beginning to wonder what the next day would bring. Well, Thursday did not disappoint!

We woke up to horrible, angry sounding wind outside the window. A quick glance and I could see that the snow that was falling last night was now being picked up and blown about all over the place. After some scrambling, multiple checks of the weather forecast, and the blissful call from work that the office was closed, we hunkered down for the day.

At the height of it, when they were forecasting 90 km/h winds, here's the view from our living room:

The camera isn't blurry - that's actually snow that is impairing the visibility. Since we could still *see* the house across the street, apparently this wasn't a bad storm at all! (ummmm.....eek?!)

I took some video too - from the front and the back of the house so you can see what it was like:

It pretty much stayed like that all day and well into the evening - when we went to bed around 11 it was still going pretty strong.

This morning, everything is back to normal. There's no wind or snow as of 5:30 when we got up, and the sun looks like it's going to rise beautifully. The sky is clear and it's going to be a gorgeous day. I can tell.

So there you go. The first blizzard in Baker Lake for 2012. We made it through unscathed and with our water still running and lots of food in the fridge. Not bad for our first!

-L