Your forecast
Increasing cloudiness. Wind up to 15 km/h. High -15 C, wind chill -33 this morning and -21 this afternoon. Risk of frostbite. UV index 1 or low.
What’s happening today
The year’s first supermoon and meteor shower will sync up in January skies, but the light from one may dim the other.
The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks Friday night into Saturday morning, according to the American Meteor Society. In dark skies during the peak, skygazers typically see around 25 meteors per hour, but this time they’ll likely glimpse less than 10 per hour due to light from Saturday’s supermoon.
Meteor showers are named for the constellation where the fireballs appear to come from. The Quadrantids — space debris from the asteroid 2003 EH1 — are named for a constellation that’s no longer recognized. The Associated Press has more here.
This 1825 etching shows an astronomical chart depicting Bootes the Ploughman holding a spear, a sickle, and two dogs, Asterion and Chara, on leashes, a quadrant, and the hair of Berenice forming the constellations. (Sidney Hall/Library of Congress / The Associated Press files)
Today’s must-read
On the surface, David Wray was the perfect teacher. Charismatic and approachable, he never wasted an opportunity to socialize with parents before the morning bell.
At Sherwood, a kindergarten-to-Grade-5 school in the River East Transcona division, Wray would hand-pick students for social clubs. Being chosen was a source of pride for the eight- and nine-year-olds in his Grade 3 class.
“Honestly, before everything happened, I was like, ‘How lucky are we that our kids have got a teacher that is so focused on their development,’” the father said in an interview.
That Wray had taken a particular interest in his daughter didn’t raise any red flags. In fact, the parents felt the situation was a dream come true.
That dream scenario turned into nightmare.
Their daughter, they would discover, was not lucky at all, but a target of her teacher’s intense obsession. Jeff Hamilton has the story.
(Mike Deal / Free Press)
On the bright side
Just hours after ringing in the new year, The Forks rang in the start of a new season, as the Nestaweya River Trail opened.
The trail — its name means “three points” in Anishinaabemowin, referencing the three-pointed juncture where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet — officially opened to the public on Thursday morning, right on time for a day of festive activities at The Forks, which included live music and family storytelling. Melissa Martin has more here.
Skaters officially open the Nestaweya River Trail by skating through a red ribbon on New Year’s Day. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)
On this date
On Jan. 2, 1953: The Winnipeg Free Press reported city police sought two New Year’s Eve revellers after a fire swept Allen’s Grill on Donald Street and forced the evacuation of the Capitol theatre, and caused $7,000 worth of damage; the smoke and fire drew a crowd of roughly 1,000, which hampered firefighters’ efforts to battle the blaze. Meteorologists reported Winnipeg saw the driest year on record in 1952, and the third-warmest. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
|
