Environment Canada issued an extreme cold warning for Waterloo Region, Guelph and the surrounding areas on Tuesday.
The agency says that the area will experience wind chill values approaching -30 on Tuesday evening which could last into Wednesday morning.
The warning notes that everyone is at risk due to the extreme cold but especially young children, older adults, people with chronic illnesses, people working or exercising outdoors, and those without proper shelter.
It says to keep an eye out for frost related symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, muscle pain and weakness, numbness and colour change in fingers and toes.
“Cover up. Frostbite can develop within minutes on exposed skin, especially with wind chill,” Environment Canada warns.
The agency also says to keep emergency supplies in your vehicle and to keep pets indoors.
“Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia,” the warning says.
This may not be the last of the cold warnings we could see this week, according to Global News meteorologist Anthony Farnell.
On Monday, he explained that temperatures are expected to be five to 10 degrees Celsius below seasonal all week “with an almost constant wind from the southwest creating wind chills that will drop below -20 at times.”
Alongside those nasty temperatures is the potential for lake effect snow across much of Southern Ontario.
“These snow squalls are particularly intense this week because of that temperature differential between the lake water temperature and that of the air above,” Farnell said.
“Winds are also aligned through the atmosphere which aids in lake effect snow squall formation.”
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