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Warm weather threatens deliveries on ice road in Canada's far north

THIS year's warm spell in the northern hemisphere has delayed the formation of Canada's ice-highway, the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road from carrying its heavy traffic in Canada's Northwest Territories.

The road is still expected to open in late January, though work crews are out building the ice and anticipate the winter road's already short period of operation may be further curtailed, Reuters reports.

Each winter, in the far reaches of Canada's north, a highway of ice built atop frozen lakes and tundra acts as a supply line to remote diamond mines, busy with traffic for a couple of months before melting away in the spring.

Since its first season in 1982, the road has been vital to a handful of mines scattered across the vast Northwest Territories, cut off by a maze of water and spongy tundra, otherwise only reachable by air.

Running 400 kilometres (248 miles), it links to three diamond mines, stretching as far as 600 kilometres when it supplied one now-shuttered gold mine.

A shorter season will mean extra costs and inconvenience for moving what amounted last year to 9,000 truckloads of diesel, machines and mining supplies from the NWT's capital, Yellowknife.

This is Yellowknife's second warmest December on record, said David Phillips, a senior climatologist at Canada's weather service.

So far, the average temperature for this December is just above -15 Celsius, marginally cooler than the -13 Celsius for December 2005, but well above the mean of around -22 Celsius.

Ice roads cross eight Arctic countries, and Canada alone has 5,400 kilometres of them, critical to unlocking mineral wealth from remote, harsh regions.

In 2006, warm weather closed the road after just 36 days. Miners spent more than C$100 million (US$721 million) to charter flights for fuel and began talking seriously about options like hovercraft and blimps.

To make the most of winter's cold, lightweight groomers are now clearing snow that insulates and slows ice growth. Later, amphibious tracked vehicles, called Hagglunds, will tow ground-penetrating radar to measure ice thickness.

Crews may need to flood more of the road than normal to quicken the freezing process this winter to overcome the warmer weather.

The road, tracked by global positioning system technology, now allows longer trailers that haul heavier loads and even has express lanes, so returning trucks with empty loads can exceed the 25 kilometre per hour speed limit.