Wind that toppled tree on Tulita, N.W.T., home intensifying in Nunavut

At around 3 a.m. Sunday morning, Tulita Dene Band Chief Frank Andrew woke to the sound of a tree falling on to the top of his home.

It didn't cause any damage, he said, but "it hit pretty good." 

Environment Canada recorded winds gusting to 87 kilometres in Tulita, N.W.T., that morning, and to 64 kilometres an hour in Délı̨nę, as part of a low pressure system that moved from the Sahtu region to the North Slave, including Yellowknife, later in the day. 

Andrew said the strong winds knocked a couple of trees down in Tulita, blew garbage cans around, and carried a trampoline from one house "quite a ways" to another, said Andrew. But, he said, that was about it. 

"Everything was OK." 

Andrew only remembers one other time that Tulita experienced such strong winds. He doesn't remember the exact year, but it happened in the winter, when people from other communities had travelled in for a hockey tournament. He said it was hard for the visitors to get home — especially the ones heading north, who needed to drive on an ice road over the Mackenzie River. 

Wind warnings continued Monday in Nunavut

Wind warnings in the N.W.T. all ended by Sunday evening, but as of 1 p.m. Monday afternoon, Environment Canada was still warning the Nunavut communities of Arviat, Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove about winds that could gust up to 110 kilometres an hour.

Alyssa Peterson, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the low pressure system was generated by unseasonably warm temperatures in Alberta and B.C. coming north and colliding with colder Arctic air that's starting to develop in the N.W.T. 

She said the system originated on the eastern side of the Mackenzie Mountains, to the west of Norman Wells, and moved quickly east across the N.W.T. and into Nunavut, where it has intensified. While some N.W.T. communities were warned of 90-kilometre winds over the weekend, Peterson said winds had gusted as high as 113 kilometres an hour in Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove. 

"It's not the strongest wind they've ever had over there, but it's pretty significant," she said, noting that the strongest wind recorded in Rankin Inlet was 137 kilometres per hour on Oct. 14, 1997.

She said she hasn't often seen gusts of more than 100 kilometres in Rankin Inlet throughout her career. 

The wind in Nunavut is expected to taper off Monday afternoon.

Peterson said the wind speeds in Yellowknife didn't stand out to her. 

Environment Canada clocked a wind gust of up to 78 kilometres an hour at around 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon, at its Yellowknife Airport weather station, which Peterson said is not unusual during the windy season of October through to March.

The maximum wind gust ever recorded there, she said, was 113 kilometres an hour on Nov. 23, 1956.