Hey, does anyone have friends in the remote, rural, poorly-connected part of Canada? Like the northwestern Northwest Territories? Because something is driving me nuts.
How about with this map from a site calling itself ResearchGate, as though the suffix "gate" hasn't been the go-to marker for scandals since the 1970s?
What I'm seeing is a splotch of Dfb on the upper Mackenzie river between Inuvik or Tsiigehtchic and Fort Good Hope, just east of the YK-NT border. What I'm not seeing is any sign that anyone has set up a long-term settlement in the area. Which just strikes me as bizarre.
Sure, places with the Dfb Köppen classification aren't known for being warm - you've got Winnipeg, Moscow, Sapporo, and Stockholm - but places with the Dfc climate are known for being considerably less hospitable. I mean, it's classified as subarctic. Surely the Gwich'in, the Sahtu, or the Hudson Bay Company would have noticed it was warmer in that area and set up a settlement there instead of further up or down the river?
Does the MacKenzie flood there more often because of the warmer temperatures along that stretch compared to downstream and at the mouth? Is it something to do with the vegetation or geology that I'm not seeing? Because it doesn't look too unusual for the area. Is it something political between the First Nations that the Hudson Bay Company actually chose to respect?
Or is the whole thing bad data? Because sure, Köppen climate classifications are often debatable. Just asking "what is Portland" can start a disagreement even after you've specified that you meant Oregon and not Maine. But surely, there's something more than a bump in the table causing this little blip?