Your forecast
Increasing cloudiness, with periods of snow beginning near noon. Local blowing snow late this morning and early this afternoon, amount 2 cm. Wind from the west at 20 km/h becoming south 40 gusting to 60 this morning then diminishing to 20 gusting to 40 this afternoon. An extreme cold warning is in effect for Winnipeg. High -14 C, wind chill -41 this morning and -24 this afternoon. Frostbite in minutes.
Jesse Wheatland walks down Portage Avenue in the extreme cold on Monday. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)
School divisions are announcing school closures or bus service cancellation for some areas; see this map and click on the relevant school division for the most recent announcements.
A mass of cold air that meandered south from the Arctic has sent temperatures plunging with wind chills making it feel like -40 Celsius or colder from New Brunswick to eastern Alberta.
Arctic cold occasionally invades the southern latitudes for a few days before retreating north, bringing with it shivering temperatures, Peter Kimbell, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Monday in an interview.
“We have permanently cold air parked across the Arctic …. From time to time, a pool of cold air meanders southward, and basically affects areas that are further south. And when that happens, people colloquially call it a polar vortex,” Kimbell said.
Extreme cold warnings are in effect across the country, with temperatures feeling like -40 C in parts of Alberta, -45 C in Saskatchewan, and down to -50 C in parts of Manitoba and northern Ontario. The Canadian Press has more here.
A cyclist rides through a park in Montreal earlier this month. (Christinne Muschi / The Canadian Press files)
What’s happening today
Nova Scotia-born, longtime Winnipegger and beloved hockey and Olympic broadcaster Scott Oake launches his For the Love of a Son: A Memoir of Addiction, Loss, and Hope on tonight at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
Ben Sigurdson writes: “Over the course of nearly 50 years as a broadcaster, Scott Oake’s wry, witty and insightful commentary at the Olympic Games and as a Hockey Night in Canada contributor has elevated him to the pantheon of Canadian sports journalism greats. But none of Oake’s successes prepared him for the struggles of a family member struggling with addiction.” Read the full story here.
Writing a memoir focused his eldest son’s overdose death was ‘hard, really hard’ says Scott Oake. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)
Today’s must-read
The Winnipeg Police Board has sought external legal advice in its protracted search for the city’s next police chief.
Coun. Markus Chambers, who chairs the police board, stopped short of saying it’s back to the drawing board in the endeavour to replace Danny Smyth, who retired in early September.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Chambers said Monday, after the board voted in favour of the 2025 preliminary police budget. “We’re doing everything that we can now to make sure we’re doing this in a proper way.”
He said the board wants to ensure a proper vetting process. Scott Billeck has the story.
Deputy Chief Gene Bowers was the police board’s recommended candidate for the Winnipeg Police Service’s top job, according to sources. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)
On the bright side
Manitobans are in for a planetary treat for the next few weeks — and a very rare one next month.
Danielle Pahud, director of the University of Manitoba Lockhart Planetarium, and an instructor in the physics and astronomy department, said that for the next month, shortly after sunset each day, six planets — Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — will be simultaneously visible in the night sky.
On the night of Feb. 28, sky-watchers will be in seventh heaven when Mercury joins them — something that only happens once every 175 years. Kevin Rollason has more here.
On the night of Feb. 28, seven planets will be simultaneously visible in the night sky. (Matt Goerzen / The Brandon Sun Files)
On this date
On Jan. 21, 1948: The Winnipeg Free Press reported in Ottawa, William Lyon Mackenzie King announced his intention to retire as prime minister and Liberal leader. Two leading candidates in the race to replace him at an expected summer convention were external affairs minister Louis St. Laurent and agriculture minister James Gardiner. In Winnipeg, details of a Jan. 2 riot at Headingley Jail, and a sit-down strike staged by prisoners on Dec. 31, were revealed in provincial police court when four inmates appeared on assualt and damage charges. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
|
