Bundle Up... For Now

     The cold front went through early this morning ushering in frigid arctic air and strong gusty winds. Winds will be from the north at 30 to 40 gusting to 50 or 60 km/h much of the day today, and temperatures will continue to fall slowly, getting closer and close to -20. These are creating significant wind chills in the -20s today, with wind chills in the -30s and approaching the -40 mark tonight and tomorrow. Be sure to bundle up!

     Tonight could potentially be our first -30 C of the winter, although it will be a close call. Most forecasts call for lows near -27 to -29 C. It wont warm up very nicely tomorrow, with highs barely exceeding -20 C. At least it will be sunny and winds will be lighter than today... :)

Friday morning temperatures - GEM model. Source - link on right hand side of blog as well -->

     Saturday morning would be the next chance at -30 C if we don't hit it Friday morning, although the chance Saturday is lower. Winds switching to westerly will likely keep them from plummeting too low Saturday morning. Those westerly winds will warm us up for the weekend with highs Saturday likely closer to our normal high of -9 C, with highs near -11 or -12. Sunday will mark the return to slightly above normal temperatures in the minus single digits.

     So this arctic outbreak will be fairly short lived with temperatures likely to remain above normal throughout much of next week, good news if you want our warm winter to continue to live up to its name.

     Meanwhile in other news, the cold arctic arctic air needs to be somewhere, and if it isn't significantly present here, then where is it? Europe has been having brutal cold and snow in the past couple weeks, and that seems to be continuing in many areas. Ice has started to form along major rivers, including in Paris, meaning icebreakers have had to be used for the first time in several years. Link to this story below:
TWN - City of Paris dusts off its river icebreaker, Dutch skate on canals in Amsterdam