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Canada beats Valentine’s Day cold records set when Macdonald was prime minister

Click to play video: 'Environment Canada blames Arctic ridge of high pressure for cold snap'
Environment Canada blames Arctic ridge of high pressure for cold snap
WATCH ABOVE: Environment Canada blames Arctic ridge of high pressure for cold snap – Feb 13, 2016

The weather on Valentine’s Day was cold enough to freeze even the warmest of hearts in parts of Canada.

Quebec saw windchills reach -46 C, Newfoundland saw 30 centimetres of snowfall in some places and Ontario broke an astounding 17 records for low temperatures in one icy swoop.

Barrie, Ont. reached -33.3 C, which broke a Valentine’s Day record set in 1879 when Sir John A. Macdonald was the prime minister.

READ MORE: Extreme cold warnings from Manitoba to New Brunswick

A couple hundred kilometres away, Welland, Ont. plummeted to -26.9 C, beating out a the previous record from 1885, the same year that Louis Riel died.

And Quebec’s frigid windchills were cold enough to freeze exposed skin in as little as five minutes.

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It capped off a weekend of cold temperatures that affected many parts of eastern and central Canada.

But the tides are expected to turn over the next week, as the forecast shows temperatures surpassing the freezing mark in some parts of the country next weekend.

WATCH: Freezing temperatures surprise NBA superstars coming to Toronto for All-Star Weekend
Click to play video: 'Freezing temperatures surprise NBA superstars coming to Toronto for  All-Star Weekend'
Freezing temperatures surprise NBA superstars coming to Toronto for All-Star Weekend

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