Inuit and other High Arctic residents say their winters are getting lighter as the climate warms. (Kevin Frayer/Canadian Press)
People in the High Arctic say their 24-hour darkness isn't as dark as it used to be, and a weather researcher says it's because of the warming climate.
"We still have a daylight and there's still blue, green, red down there — there's sun sign still," said Zipporah Ootooq Aronsen, who lives in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. "It's not usually like that."
People in Resolute Bay now sometimes see a distant island that in the past was only visible during daylight hours.
"It never happened like that before," Aronsen said. "Now we can see it once in a while, when it's a clear day."
Wayne Davidson, a weather researcher in Resolute Bay, said warmer thermal layers over cold dense polar air cause light to bend and travel farther.
"If there's a huge contrast between colder and warmer air, there's longer travel of light from any locations," he said.
Inuit have been noticing changes during the dark season for years but the changes are becoming more visible as the climate warms, Davidson said.
"It should be usually, around average, –31 degrees," he said. "It was, couple of days ago, –5 or something like that, so it's pretty wild."
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