After warmer-than-normal December, deep freeze returns to Canada

TORONTO – Right across the country, average daytime temperatures in December were above normal. But that’s coming to a bitter end.

From Vancouver to Halifax, temperatures this month were roughly between five to eight degrees warmer than normal. But this week, the mercury is expected to fall well below average. But don’t panic: that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re headed for the deep freeze we experienced last winter.

READ MORE: What a difference a year makes: No December deep chill for Canada

How cold is it supposed to get?

On Monday, people woke up to a chilly -20 C in Prince George, B.C. In Calgary and Edmonton, temperatures fell to -21 C. And in Winnipeg, it was a frosty -31 C in the early morning hours, with an expected high of just -22 C. Northwestern Ontario was also under winter’s icy grip, with morning temperatures around -20 C or colder.

Environment Canada issued extreme cold alerts for parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well as Ontario and Quebec.

The temperatures will improve on Tuesday to more normal temperatures for the Prairies, but by the end of the week, the cold sets in once again and continues into the first week of the new year.

READ MORE: Southern Manitoba under extreme cold warning as temperatures plunge

Those in southern Ontario and southeastern Quebec will see colder-than-normal temperatures, but nowhere near the cold the Prairies is enduring. And they, too, will be colder than normal into the new year.

Thanks to the effect of the Great Lakes, over the next week, Toronto will only see temperatures about two to four degrees below the normal daytime high of -2 C. In Montreal, it will be slightly chillier with temperatures falling to anywhere between two to five degrees its normal daytime high of -5 C.

So while we may have been spoiled in December, get ready to hear the words “wind chill” again.

To get real-time weather for your area, download the Global News Skytracker weather app.

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