Nighttime temperatures at the Steger Homestead have been close to forty degrees Fahrenheit below zero (-40°C). The daytime temperatures have not climbed above zero (-18ºC) for several days. When it is this cold, a cup of boiling water thrown into the air will freeze before it hits the ground. The tiny ice crystals drift away in the wind like smoke from a firecracker. We entertained ourselves one day by throwing cups of boiling water in the air.

When it is cold like this, some people ask “Where is the global warming now?” Global warming is the measurable increase in the global average temperature over a long period of time. Climate is the long-term trends of temperature, precipitation and weather patterns. Climate change can include both global warming and global cooling, but the climate change of the last hundred and fifty years has shown an overall warming trend. Weather, in contrast to climate, is the atmospheric conditions at any given time. One cold snap does not disprove global warming, just like one heat wave or hurricane does not prove it. Changes in long-term trends, however, are evidence of human-induced global warming.

Although it is bitterly cold here in Ely, temperatures in Iqaluit where we will launch our expedition are forty degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they are here (10°F/-12°C). Temperatures this warm in Iqaluit are not normal for this time of year. Although we worry about the implications of this abnormally warm weather in Iqaluit, it is somewhat ironic that we are somewhat looking forward to being able to stage our expedition in milder temperatures than the ones we’re currently experiencing in Ely.