It’s been an unusual winter for Yellowknife this year with a mix of cold and warm temperatures all season long.
As things begin to get closer to something resembling spring, the thoughts of people turn to the state of winter roads, specifically the Dettah ice road. Although there’s no confirmation on when the road will close this year, the weather seems to tell a clearer story.
The city is forecast the break even temperature-wise today with a high of 0 C. That will climb in the coming days, reaching 6 C on Sunday.
“We will only close the road once the water level on the Yellowknife side is too deep for low clearance vehicles,” stated a spokesperson from the Department of Infrastructure in response to questions from NNSL Media about the road. “Typically, it is the Yellowknife side that melts quicker due to the low water levels.”
The road closed on Apr. 10 last year, about a week earlier than it’s 20-year average of April 16.
The Dettah ice road opened on Jan. 29, much later than usual and that has been a trend for the past couple years. The department confirmed in a previous interview that it was the latest opening on record.
The 20-year average opening date for the ice road is Dec. 24.
As for other winter roads, the Gameti road is still open, but night travel has been placed under a 72-hour advance closure notice effective as of Wednesday. The same goes for Wekweetì winter road.
The Aklavik ice road remains open and normally closes around late April and all of the NWT’s ice crossings are still open as of Friday.
The department said they’ll post 72- and 48-hour notices before closing winter roads, according to their email.
Some of the winter roads that have already closed have done so much sooner than normal.
The Wrigley-to-Tulita winter road has been closed already. It normally closes March 30. The Sambaa K’e Winter Road has also closed — it also normally closes around late March.