Indigenous knowledge and observations of current trends

Seasonal weather patterns are changing.

Peoples across the Arctic report changes in the timing, length, and character of the seasons, including more rain in autumn and winter, and more extreme heat in summer.

"Sila [the weather and climate] has changed alright. It is a really late falltime now, and really fast and early springtime. Long ago the summer was short, but not anymore." Sarah Kuptana, Sachs Harbour, Canada, 1999
"It used to be really nice weather long ago when I was a kid. Bad weather now. So many mosquitoes. Sometimes it was hot, sometimes cold – not like now. [Things happen at the] wrong time now, it is way different now. August used to be cool-off time, now it is hot. It is really short in the winter now." Edith Haogak, Sachs Harbour, Canada, 2000
"The weather has changed to worse and to us it is a bad thing. It affects mobility at work. In the olden days the permanent ice cover came in October… These days you can venture to the ice only beginning in December. This is how things have changed."Arkady Khodzinsky, Lovozero, Russia, 2002

Source & © ACIA Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2004),
Key Finding #8, p.96