Bitter cold, snow in the West

Snow falls in Vancouver, BC, 15 January 2020 (Vancouver PD/Twitter)

Extremely cold Arctic air has enveloped Western Canada.

Temperatures have dropped into the -30s Celsius with bitter wind chills in the -40s on the Prairies and near -50 in the northern territories.

Even the normally mild Pacific coast has not escaped a so-called Arctic outflow.

About 15 to 20 cm snow fell in Vancouver and Victoria.

Schools closed, traffic was snarled and public transit buses got stuck in a region ill-equipped to handle wintry weather.

Heat in the Arctic!

March was a bit chilly across the Canadian provinces this year, but so warm in the territories! Warmest on record for #Yellowknife, Kugluktuk & Inuvik up to an unbelievable 14.4°C above normals!
Happy 20th anniversary, Nunanut! #climate #Arctic #Nunavut pic.twitter.com/MnGqIuBIZj

— Patrick Duplessis (@Pat_wx) April 1, 2019

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Meteorologists have said a temperature anomaly of more than 2 C is considered significant – but how about 14.4 C above normal for March 2019!

Inuvik, Northwest Territories – above the Arctic Circle – was the hotspot in Canada’s far north last month.

Warm July for most of Canada

July was a warm month not only in Greater Moncton and New Brunswick but also throughout most of Canada – except for the Far North.

Montreal shattered its monthly record with a mean temperature of 24.1 C – three degrees above normal – and sadly dozens died from not having air conditioning.

Halifax and Toronto were both almost two degrees above normal while Vancouver and Calgary were each more than one degree higher than average.

Even normally cool St. John’s, Newfoundland was 1.6 degrees warmer in July with 15 days reaching daytime highs of 25 C or more.

Only in the Arctic were temperatures lower with Iqaluit, Nunavut nearly one degree below average and Resolute was off by 2.5 degrees – its coldest July since 1964.

The heat is on in Nunavut!

Courtesy The Weather Network

When you think of warm weather during the summer, normally Nunavut doesn’t come to mind.

But temperatures were soaring into the 20’s Celsius yesterday on many of the southern islands in the territory and it was close to 30°C on the mainland.

The warmth is due to a northerly flow of the jet stream which has been creating record high temperatures recently throughout the Far North.