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Aklavik, Inuvik, Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk have each broken their all-time temperature records this week.
Some Sahtu communities also came close to their hottest days in history on Wednesday or Thursday as a heatwave parked itself over the northern half of the NWT.
Fort McPherson has hit a record temperature for three days in a row. The three hottest days in Aklavik’s weather record have all come in the past two weeks.
The NWT’s Arctic coastal community of Tuktoyaktuk hit 30C on Wednesday for the first time on record, while Inuvik’s new record is now 33.7C. Fort McPherson’s record has moved up to 34.9C. Aklavik’s record now stands at 33.1C.
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Almost all homes in the NWT don’t have air conditioning, and many offices don’t either. Compounding the issue, the summer is a time of near-constant sunlight in Arctic communities, with just a few hours of overnight twilight as relief. This week, temperatures in Inuvik barely dipped below 20C in the middle of the night.
The heat drew international attention, with British newspaper The Guardian dispatching a reporter to the town, who described Inuvik as not “built with heatwaves in mind.”
The Town of Inuvik established a cooling station at its curling club, where residents were encouraged to “bring water bottles and something to pass the time, such as board game.”
Inuvik’s average high at this time of year is about 17C.
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Subhangi Debnath, the town’s marketing and communications coordinator, said the temperature inside the cooling centre was set “so that people can go chill, six, relax … they can just stay there until 9pm.”
There was also an outdoor water park in operation.
“This town is so scorching,” said Debnath.
While the warm weather has driven the growth of some wildfires in the Sahtu, and is emblematic of a climate that some older residents say is now unrecognizable from their youth, Debnath said the prospect of fire trucks spraying cooling water over Inuvik’s kids had energized a sweltering population.
“The response is overwhelming. People are so, so happy about it,” Debnath said of the cooling centre and water park.
“We have extended staff who will be there to support until 9pm, because the parents do work after 5pm sometimes. So it’s not for only the kids. Our target is to have as many people come in and enjoy.”
Caelan Beard contributed reporting.
