The Bonavista peninsula was - by far - my favorite part of the island with lots to do, so I’d recommend adding that to your trip plans too! 3 – Leave Plenty of Free Time in Your Itinerary for DetoursĪlthough you can guess where you might see icebergs when you plan in advance, there’s no guarantee in nature. John’s anyway (with easy side trips to Cape Spear and Witless Bay), so that’s a great place to start. Where to see icebergs in NewfoundlandĪlmost all travelers spend some time in St. Anthony, Twillingate, Fogo Island, Bonavista, St. Theoretically, you can see icebergs anywhere along the Newfoundland coast, but every year it seems like there are consistent sightings in St. 2 – Make a Route of Popular Viewing Places for Newfoundland Icebergs Traveling in April can be a little risky, as some of the icebergs can get caught in sea ice, making it far more challenging to see them.Īs you might expect, icebergs do melt as temperatures rise, so prime time for iceberg viewing is May and the first part of June. Iceberg season officially runs from April through June, with a few stragglers in early July outside of the season, you can’t count on any icebergs. Top Tips for Finding Icebergs in Newfoundland an iceberg at King’s Point, Newfoundland 1 – Make Sure You Visit in Iceberg Season These glaciers can be 10,000 years old, so the icebergs themselves are made of ancient ice.Įvery year, hundreds of glaciers from Greenland or the Canadian Arctic travel little by little to Iceberg Alley in Newfoundland, an area off the north and east coasts of the island, making it a reliable - and dramatic - place to see icebergs. If you’re traveling to Newfoundland to see icebergs, here’s what you need to know for the best chance of success.įirst, you should know that an iceberg is a chunk of glacier that has fallen off (never seen it? check out my video of calving glacier in Alaska - opens in a new window). Icebergs in Newfoundland are so reliable that an entire industry has formed around taking tourists out to see the best bergs.Īnd it’s easy to understand why - some of these icebergs can be as large as a house, and no matter their size, it’s probably a drastically different view than you get at home!īut seeing Newfoundland icebergs is a little like wildlife watching you need some luck and flexibility to get it right. When chunks break off, they can travel for two or three more years before reaching the Newfoundland coast.Although there are lots of reasons to visit Newfoundland, it was “Iceberg Alley” that most caught my attention. It takes thousands of years for icebergs to form as glaciers on Greenland. Just because we didn't have any icebergs this year doesn't mean we're not going to have any icebergs next year … but we would expect this to happen more and more frequently as the years go by." "It varies a lot every year, so the decrease isn't going to be linear. The season's shortage "falls in line with what we would expect with an increasingly warm climate," Ross said. "It's definitely an extreme event," he said.īut those extreme events might eventually become commonplace. Ross characterizes 2021's low numbers as a blip, rather than a sign of rapid decline. The province last saw this level of scarcity in 2010, he said. "As the sea ice would normally melt away, then that would leave the icebergs left to be observed … but it doesn't look like we're going to get that this year." "Normally at this time of year, we'd have icebergs throughout northeast Newfoundland down to the Grand Banks," he said. That means any icebergs drifting past Labrador faced an onslaught of wind, waves and warm water, melting them before they settled in harbours and bays across the island. Newfoundland's slightly warmer than average winter, he explains, meant sea ice couldn't form as far south as it normally does. This iceberg made world news in 2017 when it drifted into Ferryland's harbour.
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