Baffin Island - Climate

Climate

Baffin Island lies in the path of a generally northerly airflow all year round, so like much of eastern Canada, it has an extremely cold climate. This brings very long, cold winters and foggy, cloudy summers, which have helped to add to the remoteness of the island. Spring thaw arrives much later than normal for a position straddling the Arctic Circle; around early June at Iqaluit in the south-east to early/mid July on the north coast where glaciers run right down to sea level. Snow, even heavy snow, occurs at any time of the year, although is least likely in July and early August. Average annual temperatures at Iqaluit are around −8.5 °C (16.7 °F), compared with Reykjavík, around 5 °C (41 °F), which is at a similar latitude.

Sea ice surrounds the island for most of the year, and until recently only disappeared completely from the north coast for short unpredictable periods in August, if at all. At present, the sea is clear of ice off Iqaluit from mid to late June until the end of September.

Most of Baffin Island lies above the Arctic Circle and all the communities from Pangnirtung northwards have Polar night in winter and the midnight sun in summer. The eastern community of Clyde River has twilight instead of night from April 26 until May 13, continuous sunlight for 2½ months from May 14 to July 28, then twilight instead of night from July 29 until August 16. This gives the community just over 3½ months without true night. In the winter the sun sets on November 22 and does not rise again until January 19 of the next year. However, there is twilight for at least 4 hours a day, unlike places such as Alert.