Saturday Morning with the Dogs

I couldn't help but take all these photos of Cookie and Smiley. Note: this post may not be interesting if you don't want to look at lots of dog photos.

The week in Whitehorse

The weather was the big topic of conversation in Whitehorse this week. Monday morning started with record-breaking high temperatures- in one Yukon town, Beaver Creek, it was +14! It rained in Mt Lorne on Monday morning all the way through my drive to work, and then the precipitation turned to a heavy snowfall before lunch! The sudden change was due to a low pressure system from Hawaii, or something like that. Colin explains it well! Whitehorse got over a foot of snow in some spots, and at one point in the afternoon, all of the exits from town were blocked with car accidents from the poor driving conditions. I left work an hour early on the advice that it was safer to drive in this snowstorm in the daylight, and at this time of year, the daylight it on it's way out at 4pm. Although the roads were snowy, it was an uneventful (and slow) drive home. My coworker's family was visiting Juneau, Alaska for the day, and had to stay overnight in Skagway, because the mountain pass between Skagway and Whitehorse was at high risk for avalanches with all the snow. With our 12 highways, the local road conditions website is really easy to navigate. This is from Monday:

Holiday cheer

The best month of the year (guaranteed snow, family parties, Christmas lights) has already started out well. Mt Lorne weather has been very comfortable, with some light snow and temperatures around 10 (that's what Yukoners call -10 in the winter). The forecast for later in the week is a slightly more wintery 20, but then it is supposed to warm up again and stay around 10 for a while. The daylight is pretty wimpy now, even at high noon. Sunrise is 9:45am today, and sunset is right about now, at 3:55pm. The sunrises and sunsets are stunning, if you can catch them!

We went out this morning to Icycle Sport, a great local shop for outdoor gear that has a coffee place inside!