EDMONTON – The wind chill warning Environment Canada issued Friday morning for Edmonton and its surrounding communities has ended. The warning remained in place Saturday morning, but was dropped early Saturday afternoon.
Environment Canada said Edmonton and the surrounding area could expect extreme wind chill values below -40°C Saturday morning.
Wind chill warnings remain in place for areas of southern Alberta, including Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, where wind chill values of up to -50°C are possible.
At these extreme wind chill values, frostbite on exposed skin can occur in less than 10 minutes.
The Alberta Motor Association (AMA) said the average wait time for service Saturday was between 10 and 14 hours.
AMA representatives said an average of 200 to 300 calls were in the queue at any given time Saturday. The vast majority of those calls were for dead batteries or flat tires. The AMA is strongly urging all motorists to plug in their vehicles.
The wind chill made it feel like it was colder than -40°C Friday morning, making it one of the colder places in the world.
“The Arctic airmass that started its journey to Edmonton last Wednesday has finally moved right over us,” explained Global Edmonton‘s chief meteorologist Nicola Crosbie. “It’s a very large airmass that originated in the Arctic, that will move slowly south and east by Sunday.”
READ MORE: Deep freeze grips Prairies, B.C.
She added that the record for this day was set in 1882, with a freezing -41.7°C. But Friday’s temperatures, hovering around the -30°C mark, were still cold enough to keep PCL construction crews off the job site.
- Life in the forest: How Stanley Park’s longest resident survived a changing landscape
- ‘Love at first sight’: Snow leopard at Toronto Zoo pregnant for 1st time
- Carbon rebate labelling in bank deposits fuelling confusion, minister says
- Buzz kill? Gen Z less interested in coffee than older Canadians, survey shows
“Minus 25, we don’t work,” said Dale Zemlak. “When it gets up to those temperatures we have the buddy system. Guys watch for frost bite, there’s breaks…tower crane gets shut down…it’s just safe that way.”
Alberta Health Services would agree.
Dr. Chris Sikora, medical officer of health, says to watch out for: “pain, numbness in the finger tips, in the ears, in the toes; if there comes to be a waxy feeling in the fingertips, in the toes, and rock hard – that’s a bad sign that things have progressed a little bit further than they should.”
READ MORE: Detecting and preventing frostbite
Further south, the miserably cold weather forced officials to temporarily halt filming of an American TV series ‘Fargo’ in Calgary on Friday.
| By the Numbers: Cold Comparison –41°C w/windchill – Edmonton Intl. Airport -42°C w/windchill – Edmonton City Centre -42°C w/windchill – Pond Inlet, NT -42°C – Verhojansk, Russia -46°C w/windchill – Antartica, Ago-5 -52°C w/windchill (-39.8°C without) – Manning, AB And…26 record lows broken across Alberta. Source: Meteorologist Nicola Crosbie |
Alberta’s deep freeze isn’t enough to deter tourism officials from welcoming a large delegate from overseas, though, in hopes of boosting the bottom line.
DERTOUR Academy has brought over 600 travel agents and journalists from Germany, Austria and other European countries to Alberta, to tour the best of the prairies.
Some Edmontonians also seem to be taking the cold in stride. Global News spotted Dylan Cole walking on Whyte Avenue in just a hoodie.
“It happens every year. I’m used to it now,” he said. “There’s no point in hoping for a break, ’cause I know it’s not coming any time soon. So just bare it for now. It only lasts a few months.”
Crosbie says temperatures should improve by Monday, reaching -8°C.
You can get your forecast on the go, by downloading our Skytracker Weather App.
This story was originally published Friday, December 6. It was updates Saturday, December 7 to included updated wind chill values.
Comments