Diverted flights, cancelled buses and frozen gas pumps: Yukon grapples with 1st major cold snap of winter
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The temperatures have plummeted this week in Yukon, causing the number of headaches and frustrations to rise.
From frozen gas pumps, to diverted flights, cancelled school buses and a surge in road accidents, the extreme cold snap in recent days has been something to reckon with.
And the weather forecast is not showing any sign of relief any time soon, with temperatures expected to stay mostly below –30 C, or even below –40 C, into at least next week.
Whitehorse woke on Thursday morning to a blanket of ice fog so thick that it prevented a couple of planes from landing at the airport. The two planes — an Air North flight and an Air Canada flight — were diverted.
By the afternoon, however, things had cleared up at the airport.
“I think with this extremely cold weather, ice fog is something that we’ve experienced many times,” said Nigel Cripps, the airport manager.
“However, you know, not only our staff at the airport, but the airlines are prepared to work around it.”
The extreme cold was also causing some problems for motorists, as pumps at some gas stations — including Pelly Crossing, where the temperature plunged to –45 overnight — weren’t working.
RCMP also said on Thursday that they’d seen a “significant increase in motor vehicle collision reports” in Whitehorse in the last few days. They said most involved people following too closely, or driving too fast for the conditions, or not clearing their windows of snow and ice.
“You know, coming into town this morning, my speed was almost reduced by half because of the visibility conditions,” said Yukon RCMP spokesperson Calista MacLeod.
“It really is important to take … visibility, the cold, everything into consideration.”
Police also urged drivers to pay attention to their tire pressure, which can drop in extreme cold temperatures. In some cases, police said, underinflated tires can lose their seal against the rim and cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle.
Also on Thursday, the territory’s education minister apologized to families and students for his department causing “unnecessary stress and anxiety” around school bus operations in the cold weather.
Earlier, the department had issued a public message saying that school buses don’t run when it’s colder than –35 C. Kent said, however, that’s not true.
“Let me be clear: schools will remain open during cold weather, and school buses will continue to provide safe and reliable transportation for students,” Kent said, in a written statement.
The minister also promised to work with Standard Bus to ensure families are notified on time if there’s a bus cancellation. On Tuesday, several school buses were cancelled because of the cold and Kent acknowledged that some families weren’t told soon enough.
“We are committed to working with Standard Bus to improve the notification system in the immediate term and more broadly when students return to school after the holidays,” Kent said.
