CBC News - Season for critical northern Ontario ice road getting shorter, says road builder
“Sapna Sharma, an associate professor with York University’s biology department, said a 1.5 C increase in average temperatures due to climate change would mean 90 per cent of current ice roads would no longer have enough ice to be sustainable.”
The Wetum Road running south from Ontario's James Bay Coast has been slow to open this winter and builders say the season keeps getting shorter and shorter. (Erik White/CBC)
A new article on CBC News discusses climate change's impacts on northern Ontario ice roads. With temperatures warming, the season that these roads can be active is getting shorter and transportation through the region more difficult and expensive. The Wetum Road, a 170-kilometre ice road that connects Moose Factory to the provincial highway system, requires 76 centimetres of ice for commercial vehicles and 45 centimetres for personal vehicles. As of January 12, 2023, it is only open for personal vehicles.
Peter Wesley, the owner of Moose Cree group who builds and maintains this ice road, says that the increased amount of snow this year is impacting the ice build-up by acting as an insulator. The road opened later than usual and will most likely close early as well.
An associate professor at York University, Sapna Sharma says, if the average temperature were to raise by three degrees Celsius, 99% of the ice roads would not be able to support large commercial vehicles.
The Canada1Water project focuses on the impacts of climate change and aims to give companies like the Moose Cree group the tools to better understand the effects. One key outcome of the project will be modelled snow depth for all Canada, making it easier to predict how the insulative properties of snow might affect ice road viability to the end of century in northern Canadian communities. These risk-based assessment models are an ideal way to improve the decision-making capacity of policy makers.
Click here to read the article on CBC News
“The ice road connects the community of Moose Factory, along the James Bay Coast, to the provincial highway system. It allows people and commercial vehicles to more easily reach larger centres to the south, such as Timmins, North Bay and Sudbury.”