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Weather outside is... yikes

Alberta's capital has us beat, but it's still pretty darn frosty

By: Matt Preprost

Posted: 12/14/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Lori McGinnis (above right) braves the cold temperatures to enjoy a bright and sunny afternoon skate with an out-of-town friend on the recently opened Scotiabank skating rink at The Forks Sunday afternoon. At left, Larry Sullivan of Edmonton goes for his morning run as the temperature dips to a frightful -58.4 with a wind chill on Sunday.

Yeah, right, tell us about cold here in Winnipeg -- we're practically balmy compared to Edmonton.

Edmonton spells cold with a capital C, capital O, capital L, capital D -- we had a low of -29 C Sunday, Edmonton bottomed out at -46.1 C.

And -58.4 with the wind chill at Edmonton International Airport.

We should be breaking out the sunblock compared to the frosty Albertans, right?

OK, so the -32 C we had overnight and can expect again tonight isn't exactly toasty and being better off than Edmonton may not be a great comfort.

If you're looking for a break from the deep freeze hovering over Manitoba, you'll have to wait a few more days before it retreats back to the north from whence it came.

Extreme wind-chill warnings will remain in effect across southern Manitoba until at least Wednesday, said Environment Canada meteorologist Mike McDonald.

That's when temperatures are expected to return to normal.

"We got a couple more really cold days in store," McDonald said.

Temperatures here on Sunday hit a brisk high of -23 C. With the wind chill, it felt more like -32. The average temperature this time of year is around -10 C.

McDonald said extreme wind-chill values of -40 to -45 will continue until mid-week.

It's all because of a massive chunk of bitter Arctic air that was blown down from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut last week.

The front has paralyzed the Prairies with its icy death grip ever since.

"Over the last few weeks, it was swept south with the northerly winds we've had the last few days," McDonald explained.

By Wednesday, however, weather-weary Winnipeggers should have something to smile about.

Imagine Torontonians down in the centre of the universe, reading about us getting positively giddy over -10. You won't care what they think; you'll be too busy cavorting outside in shorts.

Western winds are expected to flush the frigid front out of the province and bring warmer temperatures with it, McDonald said.

McDonald said there are 14 days a year when wind chills hit -40 or colder. We've used three of those days so far.

Oh, that's not such good news, is it?

Is the glass 3/14ths empty, or 11/14ths full?

Either way, the glass is frozen.

This weather also isn't representative of what's in store for Winnipeg this winter. Our weather will be influenced by a mild bout of El Nino this winter, bringing above-normal temperatures, McDonald said.

OK, that's good news.

Just three weeks ago, on Nov. 21, Winnipeg set a warm-weather record. Temperatures hit 13 C, a record that hadn't been beaten since 1939.

It was colder in Edmonton Sunday than anywhere else in North America.

Environment Canada recorded a bone-chilling -46.1 C -- or -58.4 with wind chill -- at the Edmonton International Airport at 5 a.m., said Environment Canada meteorologist Pierre Lessard.

Some flights scheduled to land at the Edmonton International Airport late Saturday night and early Sunday morning were diverted to Calgary because of the severe temperatures, said Edmonton International Airport spokeswoman Traci Bednard.

The extreme weather isn't just limited to cold. Snow played havoc last week in central Ontario's cottage country, with 80 centimetres of the white stuff falling on Bracebridge, Ont., forcing the community to declare an emergency.

-- with files from The Canadian Press, Canwest News Service

matt.preprost@freepress.mb.ca

* Frostbite would have occurred in 10 minutes or less Sunday

* Iqaluit was warmer than Winnipeg. Temperatures in the Nunavut capital hit -11 C Sunday

* Winnipeg was just as cold Sunday as both the North and South poles

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 14, 2009 A3

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