Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Canada's Coldest Day

It's another cold one out there this morning with sunrise temperatures around -32C. But if you think that's cold, imagine if it was 30 degrees colder. That's what it was like on this date in 1947 in the small town of Snag, Yukon Territory when the community recorded a low temperature of -62.8C, a reading that still stands as the coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada, and all of North America. The temperature was recorded during a severe cold snap between Jan 27th and Feb 4th when the temperature failed to climb above -40C in Snag, with nightly lows of -50 to -60C. The following link, Life at minus 80, gives an interesting account of what the observers witnessed that record cold morning. This link gives more details on the historic cold snap.

6 comments:

  1. Looks like tomorrow will be another very windy day with a stiff south wind gusting to 70 km/h.
    I'm sure there will be the potential for a lot of heavy drifting snow on the highways!

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  2. All the models that I have looked at agree with the chance for a monster blizzard early next week. This system will possibly start with rain...yes rain...over SE MB, then change to completely snow. This is very bad news for the flood situation, as this system could easily drop another 20 to 40mm of liquid on the Red River Basin. Obviously this is still a medium range forecast, but since NWS Bismarck is already taking about it I'll take the threat seriously for now.

    This system will have to be monitored closely, with mixed feelings.

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  3. Scott


    They were talking about it on the 6:00pm news.

    I'll take the snow but skip the rain. The rain makes everything just to dangerous. Please keep us posted.

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  4. Still considerable uncertainty on the development of that storm system and how it may impact us. Upper pattern early next week supports development of a Colorado low type system with deep trough pushing into western NA and upper ridge over southeast USA. However, models have varying opinions on track and intensity of storm system as it tracks into plains. Certainly bears watching.. but I'd like to see a little more model consistency before I worry about impacts on us.

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  5. Which reminds me that we have not have had a BIG storm here this year!
    I mean in far south eastern Manitoba they had some moderate snowfalls... but here in Winnipeg are "biggest" snowfall was like 9 cm.

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  6. Well.. I just got my snowblower fixed yesterday.. so I'm ready for a big one if it comes!

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