Breaking News Hurricane forms over Artic Ocean, headed for Northern Canadian Provinces.

NRNP -

Nunavut Territory - The Canadian National Weather Center said today that an intense low-pressure area has formed over the Artic Ocean, with winds currently at 75 Kts. A hurricane warning has been issued for low-lying coastal areas in the northern latitudes of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The storm had been moving in a large elliptical pattern for the past ten days, but has recently turned southeasterly, raising concerns for numerous small villages and cities in the North.

If the storm's winds continue to increase, it will be named Hurricane Ann-Marie, the only name provided by the CNWC's official Canadian hurricane naming list.

This unusual storm is the first known low-pressure storm ever formed over the Artic in recorded history. During the bitterly cold winter months of January and February, strong low-pressure systems called "Artic Clippers" race southward bringing blizzard conditions to the interior plains of central Canada and the mid-western states. "If this storm continues to grow in strength and reaches the Hudson Bay, it poses a real threat to the interior provinces of Canada," said Henri LaFocasta of CWNC.

Canada is sending reconnaissance aircraft to the area in an attempt to gather as much weather data as possible about the storm. This will be a first for the Canadian Maritime Patrol aircraft, which is normally engaged only in surveillance of cargo ships transiting the waters offshore of Canadian Maritime Provinces. The U.S. Air Force's Hurricane Hunter Squadron has been place on alert in the event that the unusual storm makes an unexpected turn towards Alaska.

"The idea that a tropical type storm, or even a hurricane could some day form in Artic waters has been discussed for some time," said Thomas Laddie, Phd., of the National Hurricane and Stormy Weather Advisory Center. "Global warming and the growing hole in the artic ozone layer are probably the cause of this. I think it likely that the final breakup of the polar ice caps and the sudden rise in CO2 are the main cause." Extreme global warming is believed by many scientists to be the reason for unusually warm seas and number of tropical storms that have battered shorelines around the world.

"We're watching this event closely," said Lawrence Dumas, the Premier of Nunavut Territory in northern Canada. "We will begin evacuating the low lying coastal villages as soon as we are convinced that the storm's path is placing our people in danger." Nunavut is the largest and the newest territory of Canada's provinces. "If the storm remains heading south and east, it will pass directly over Baffin Island and onto Hudson's Bay. After that, it's anybody's guess," he concluded.

Scientists have long speculated that the warm waters of Hudson's Bay would contribute a lot of energy to such as storm, if one ever developed. With the formation of this unusual storm, researchers can only speculate on the long-term effect upon Canada's Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec and Ontario. Hurricane Ann-Marie may bring as much as a foot of rain to low lying areas as far south as Montreal.

NRNP Not Real News Press, 2008

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