Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Dan Davidson

WINTER’S TENTACLES – Ice congregates at the George Black ferry landing on the Yukon River in Dawson City.

The Yukon River freezes at Dawson City

The Yukon ice has stopped moving in front of Dawson,

By Dan Davidson on November 13, 2019

DAWSON CITY – The Yukon ice has stopped moving in front of Dawson, catching most people by surprise.

For a week to 10 days after the George Black ferry was extracted on Oct. 15, there was no ice to speak of in the river.

Then small floes came and went, as the temperature fluctuated above and below the zero mark.

During the last week, there has been a steady accumulation of larger ice pans, but this was the case during the last three years as well, so it didn’t necessarily mean anything.

In those years, the ice jammed farther upstream, leaving a two-kilometre stretch of open waster in front of the town.

Canadian Rangers Sgt. John Mitchell reported that he had seen that early Monday morning. He was busy getting ready for the Remembrance Day service at the Robert Service School and didn’t have time to look into it further.

During that service, there was a fair amount of buzz among people who were aware that this had happened.

It’s too early to say when the first people will try to cross the ice on foot, or when the first snow machines will attempt it.

As always, people are cautioned to be careful until such time as there is an official word, but there is traditionally light traffic well before that.

Comments (4)

Up 3 Down 3

Yukoner on Nov 19, 2019 at 2:44 pm

What? That can't be. After all we are having a climate emergency. (sarc.)

Up 31 Down 36

Dave on Nov 14, 2019 at 12:19 pm

Hey LL, Did your god Justin make the river freeze? Why didn’t he just let Liberals walk across the water in that case?

Up 50 Down 24

Joe on Nov 13, 2019 at 9:26 pm

Quick ! call Greta

Up 37 Down 21

Larry Liberal on Nov 13, 2019 at 5:00 pm

Another successful Liberal project.

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