Throughout the weekend, the entire province of Alberta was under an extreme cold warning.
By New Year’s Day, Environment Canada lifted some of those warnings across the province, but not before some centres set new record lows for the first day of 2018.
Environment Canada released preliminary statistics of new record low temperatures of New Year’s Day 2018.
Brooks set a new record low of -39.4 C, surpassing that city’s old record of -38.9 C set in 1928.
The town of Claresholm beat its record cold temperature by four degrees. Its new record is -38.0 C. Its old record was -34.0 C set in 1993.
In the badlands of central Alberta, Drumheller started New Year’s Day with a low temperature of -38.2 C, beating its old record of -35.6 C set in 1965.
On the other side of central Alberta, the town of Sundre was nearly five degrees colder than its old record set 27 years ago. Its new record is -36.3 C, while -31.5 C was set in 1991.
In southern Alberta, Vauxhall’s cold temperature almost reached -40 C early Monday morning, a temperature low of -39.8 C was reported, breaking its old record of -36.7 C set in 1950.
And two hours after ringing in 2018, Lethbridge recorded its new low of -37.8 C, surpassing its old record of -36.1 C set in 1950. Also of note, the wind chill factor in Lethbridge was -51 at midnight and -50 at 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Monday morning.
As of 11 p.m. on Jan. 1, all extreme cold warnings were dropped in southern Alberta.
As for the City of Calgary, no new record lows were established Monday despite the temperature dipping to -30.0 C very early Monday morning.
In fact, the cold arctic air, which has been blasting us and the entire province, finally drifted away in Calgary Monday afternoon. At 4 p.m., at the Calgary International Airport, the temperature sat at a balmy -8 C, and by 10 p.m., the temperature climbed to -2 C, as warm, milder air pushed in from the Pacific.
Those Chinook conditions are expected to bring temperatures in Calgary over to the plus side by Tuesday afternoon with a forecast high near 3 C, which is a welcome relief from the bone chilling temperatures that had stuck around the city since Christmas Day.