Extreme cold has hit Canada in January, including -40 °C temperatures (which, coincidentally, is also -40 °F, and if you don't believe me, just calculate it yourself using the formula °F = °C × [9/5] + 32) in multiple regions. Accompanied by heavy snow, the weather closed down schools and caused electricity shortages, reminding everyone of nature's might.
To show you what all of that looked like, we put together a list of photos taken during this frigid spell, and if there's one thing that stands out, it's the local communities' ability to adapt and persevere in the face of even the most challenging times.
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It's Cold Enough In Calgary Today That I Used A Frozen Towel As A Toboggan
Calgary, Alberta This Morning! Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold Water Due To The "Mpemba Effect"!
Remember that when doing this you need to be sure it's cold enough. Someone in Finland got splashed by hot water and a bit burned, because the outside temp was too warm.
In the middle of the month, a polar vortex was sweeping in from the Arctic through the West, while a storm swirling up from Texas was wreaking havoc in the East, leaving millions of Canadians facing snowstorms or severely cold temperatures.
At one point, roughly half of the country was under extreme weather warnings.
When Asked "How Cold Is It, Actually?" Show Them This
My Thermometer Has Bottomed Out. Actual Temperature Is -44c
Just Another Day In Calgary
I'm not into lashes but these would look really cool!!!
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The eyelashes are gorgeous, although I’m sure that is very uncomfortable.
Yeah, they're really pretty, but I'm not sure if I would like to have that natural look...
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My face hurts looking at that. This is when the air really slaps hard.
I don't know who is going through downvoting random people so here's an upvote and an answer: it's windchill
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"We've got really, really, really cold air coming down from the Arctic in the west. And then in the East, we have this really potent weather system that's coming up from the south," Jesse Wagar, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said at the time.
According to Wagar, in the wintertime, the country does get dynamic weather patterns, but these were "pretty unusual."
Clothing Outside In Calgary, Alberta, Canada
It's So Cold At Arrowhead Tonight That The Refrigerator Is Keeping Drinks Warm
It's This Cold In Calgary
Well, that's one way to cool off hemorrhoids. I know, I know - I'll show myself out. 🤭
"Some of the temperatures that we are seeing in Western Canada, not only is it incredibly cold compared to what we've seen recently, but they're record-breaking temperatures in general," Wagar added.
Saturday Omfg
Otoh Canada is getting closer to achieving room temperature superconductivity...
Looks Like I’m Going Nowhere Today
It’s So Cold In Canada, It’s Snowing Up!
However, things are changing. Above-than-normal temperatures should begin to spread into parts of Western Canada beginning Tuesday.
While we're not looking at all-time, record-breaking warmth for January, the thaw should be pretty long-lived.
-50c / -58f Temperatures In Alberta, Canada And The Livestock Water Heater Can't Keep Up
Does Anyone Know If It's Cold Outside Or Something?
-38 Degree Windchill In Winnipeg
It's So Cold The Exhaust Fumes From The Furnace Are Freezing Up
By next week, an even stronger heat signal will see daytime highs sitting above the freezing mark as we start the month of February, possibly kicking off the snowmelt for parts of the country.
The Moisture From My Breath Froze On My Glasses
That's just so effing annoying. Foggy eyeglasses are supposed to clear after a while, but when they do that, you just end up waiting and waiting
The House And Vehicles Held Up Pretty Well Against The Cold Until This Morning... Literally Thought It Was A Gunshot
Where I am we play the "was it a gunshot or fireworks?" game. I guess in Canada apparently it's more of "is it a gunshot or oppressively freezing temperatures breaking the glass in my structure?" game.
It's Cold Enough In Calgary Today That I Played Frisbee With My Shirt!
My Door Handle Froze
Canada-Suffering-Cold-Winter-Pics
Emergency Power Alert
It’s Tough Being A Min Pin During Winter In Canada
Winter In Edmonton, Canada
It’s Pretty Cold In Calgary, Canada. -32°c!
In Case You’re Wondering How Cold It Is In Edmonton Lol
Is Ramen the new Banana for Scale for cold temperature posts?
It’s So Cold That The Inside Of My Window Is Beginning To Freeze
Live in Kansas in U.S. couple weeks ago it was so cold (definitely NOT this cold!) But back door glass was completely iced over and windows had ice all around the edge of the windows! It was crazy! I could NOT imagine living there! No offense Canadians but your a tad bit Cray Cray 🤣🙃🙃🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Fast Chargers Stop Working In Yellowknife Due To Cold Weather
Extreme Cold Warning: Record Power Use Triggers Grid Alert | Spike In Ems Calls For Cold-Related Emergencies
I think if I lived in Canada right now we would never leave our house, live off canned goods if needed. And I think we’d all sleep in one bed to share warmth. I would expect schools and work to simply close, although my employer falls into the essential personal category, thankfully my role there does not.
How Cold Is It In Canada? This Cold
You Know It’s Winter…
They do it here in the Netherlands as well, as soon as the temperature drops below 0°C (this is when water starts to freeze, 100°C is boiling water). For those who cannot identify the photo: It is the gas heaters heating the switch of some train tracks. Edit: The line is caused by several heaters in a row, think "camping stove"-type, with supply pipes and bigger gas tanks instead of the blue or red gas tanks. Here in NL you will have actual flames, too, but much smaller than on the photo.
Meanwhile, in Barcelona, we are at around 20C in January (should be like half of it). Dreading the summer already.
I live in Calgary, and this was actually about 2 weeks ago. It's now 10:30 pm and 0C, and will be a high of +8C tomorrow (with a prediction of +14C on Wednesday). It was so cold that my car died while I was actively driving it. The battery and alternator just quit life, and I had to get both replaced less than two weeks ago. Now I don't even have to warm my car up.
When people in the UK ask why I left Canada, this thread is essentially my answer
For everyone who asks why we live up here...it's because this is the only extreme we have to deal with. No hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves....just a cold snap or two, and we always know when those are coming.
So, question: before modern heating, insulation etc, how did indigenous people keep warm/comfortable/alive with that level of cold?
Snow and ice is a fantastic insulator. Once you accept that you're NEVER going to be toasty warm while lightly dressed during the winter, it's not so difficult to be survivably warm. Survivable does not mean pleasant; I remember reading about one society that ate nothing but walrus all winter, and the arctic explorer who astonished America by being healthy on such a diet.
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So meanwhile I’m in Australia where it’s summer, and the weather has all gone a bit strange
Well, I’m glad that where I live in Ontario is unseasonably warm right now because my furnace shut down last week and I’ve been heating my house with fireplaces and electric heaters until a chimney guy can come in and clean out some blockages. It’s usually pretty darn cold around here at this time of year.
Czech here. While I would like to experience this weather at least once, I know that it would be a disaster. No one and nothing is prepared for this. Apparently, -20C used to be standart here 50-60 years ago, but -20c nowadays causes a lot of problems.We are not used to this.
I guess that's what they are called the Calgary Flames. They need to be flames to stay warm when they play.
It was so cold that week that we couldn't get into our cars. The car doors were frozen shut.
Just so we're clear, we were hit pretty hard this year and the prairie provinces got the worst of it. They're always colder than the rest of the country as they're so darn flat. Here in Toronto, it's currently foggy and 1 degree C (34F), with very little snow on the ground.
At least the temps are warming up now. Although I predict we'll get colder temps again. Winters have been loopy nearly every year.
We had quite a cold snap in Atlanta recently. For a couple weeks the temperature dipped below freezing at night, and one day it didn't get above 0C. To think we often call our town "Hotlanta."
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I grew up in England, so have had some freezing winters (nothing like those in the post) I have also experienced -25c. There are some people here in Perth that have never seen snow first hand or experienced a frost. We do have +40c temps here though - I'm sure some residents of Canada have never experienced that either.
HIghish latitudes in the middle of large land masses get low lows and high highs. e.g. the Kazakh capital Astana, 41.6 high, -51.6 low.
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And my German Shepard let me know it was too cold for him when he went outside to pee then hustled back inside on a -12F day.
Who all has seen the movie "Day After Tomorrow?" When the flags freeze, you know what's happening.
I spent twenty living years in Chicago, which was nineteen winters too many.
I am so grateful to be a Canadian living in Southern Ontario, um I walked a km with just a sweatshirt today, I've shoveled my driveway exactly once this season, no wonder all of Canada hates Alberta, more than their obnoxious political beliefs
As a Victorian, it was amazing to see snow actually falling for the first time in my life, when I visited Canada, but I wouldn't trade it long term! We do get snow here, but only on the mountains and more and more infrequently. A friend of mine did get to experience skiing on Christmas Day here, at Mt Baw Baw (I could be confusing which mountain) once!
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Haha- I'd rather be here in the cold then feel threatened by Florida Man!
Load More Replies... Seriously cold, but I think the Canadians are just enjoying their moment in the spotlight, as in fact these temperatures are not at all unusual in Alberta. I've skied there three times, the coldest of which was at a daytime high of -35C (Jasper, quite a way North of Calgary, nearly on a line with Edmonton). Once the temperature rises above about -15 you'll see people out and about wearing just a T-shirt...
Welp I guess where the polar vortex went when we lost the freezing weather from Finland
As a person born and raised in Alberta I can't be happier to see them suffer the effects of climate change. People don't understand just how messed up it is that oil companies RULE that province and because they pay well, most Albertans are happy to work for them and help ruin the planet. The government of AB actually calls diversification the "d-word" and they actively work against projects that could turn the economy away from resource extraction. Southern AB gets 300 days of sunshine a year, and there are always strong cold winds coming through the Crowsnest Pass for wind farm operations. The Smith govt has been working to prevent expansion of those projects, preventing the province from exporting more electricity. AB also has all the minerals required to become a powerhouse of solar panel exports, but anything that's not oil and gas is prevented from accelerating. Let them all suffer on the pyre of their own misfortune. They helped cause this
You do realize we aren't all the ucp, right? And that many, many Albertans who have nothing to do with these policies are also being affected?
Load More Replies... There was a report on NPR, which seemed to spread the environmentalist echo chamber about HORROR OF HORRORS! a utility that was building a new gas-fueled plant (One of many utilities). Folks, I'd like to believe that one day, surprisingly soon, we'll be living in a society that its mostly fueled by green energy, whether including thorium reactors or not. But even in a society with a negative output of carbon dioxide, there will always be room for some gas-produced electricity and some places where you'd better have an ICE truck.
It's not global warming, it's climate change. Some places will get warmer, others won't. Scotland's just had its warmest January day on record, but the UK as a whole is predicted to get cold when the gulf stream switches off.
Load More Replies... Meanwhile, in Barcelona, we are at around 20C in January (should be like half of it). Dreading the summer already.
I live in Calgary, and this was actually about 2 weeks ago. It's now 10:30 pm and 0C, and will be a high of +8C tomorrow (with a prediction of +14C on Wednesday). It was so cold that my car died while I was actively driving it. The battery and alternator just quit life, and I had to get both replaced less than two weeks ago. Now I don't even have to warm my car up.
When people in the UK ask why I left Canada, this thread is essentially my answer
For everyone who asks why we live up here...it's because this is the only extreme we have to deal with. No hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves....just a cold snap or two, and we always know when those are coming.
So, question: before modern heating, insulation etc, how did indigenous people keep warm/comfortable/alive with that level of cold?
Snow and ice is a fantastic insulator. Once you accept that you're NEVER going to be toasty warm while lightly dressed during the winter, it's not so difficult to be survivably warm. Survivable does not mean pleasant; I remember reading about one society that ate nothing but walrus all winter, and the arctic explorer who astonished America by being healthy on such a diet.
Load More Replies... So meanwhile I’m in Australia where it’s summer, and the weather has all gone a bit strange
Well, I’m glad that where I live in Ontario is unseasonably warm right now because my furnace shut down last week and I’ve been heating my house with fireplaces and electric heaters until a chimney guy can come in and clean out some blockages. It’s usually pretty darn cold around here at this time of year.
Czech here. While I would like to experience this weather at least once, I know that it would be a disaster. No one and nothing is prepared for this. Apparently, -20C used to be standart here 50-60 years ago, but -20c nowadays causes a lot of problems.We are not used to this.
I guess that's what they are called the Calgary Flames. They need to be flames to stay warm when they play.
It was so cold that week that we couldn't get into our cars. The car doors were frozen shut.
Just so we're clear, we were hit pretty hard this year and the prairie provinces got the worst of it. They're always colder than the rest of the country as they're so darn flat. Here in Toronto, it's currently foggy and 1 degree C (34F), with very little snow on the ground.
At least the temps are warming up now. Although I predict we'll get colder temps again. Winters have been loopy nearly every year.
We had quite a cold snap in Atlanta recently. For a couple weeks the temperature dipped below freezing at night, and one day it didn't get above 0C. To think we often call our town "Hotlanta."
Load More Replies... I grew up in England, so have had some freezing winters (nothing like those in the post) I have also experienced -25c. There are some people here in Perth that have never seen snow first hand or experienced a frost. We do have +40c temps here though - I'm sure some residents of Canada have never experienced that either.
HIghish latitudes in the middle of large land masses get low lows and high highs. e.g. the Kazakh capital Astana, 41.6 high, -51.6 low.
Load More Replies... And my German Shepard let me know it was too cold for him when he went outside to pee then hustled back inside on a -12F day.
Who all has seen the movie "Day After Tomorrow?" When the flags freeze, you know what's happening.
I spent twenty living years in Chicago, which was nineteen winters too many.
I am so grateful to be a Canadian living in Southern Ontario, um I walked a km with just a sweatshirt today, I've shoveled my driveway exactly once this season, no wonder all of Canada hates Alberta, more than their obnoxious political beliefs
As a Victorian, it was amazing to see snow actually falling for the first time in my life, when I visited Canada, but I wouldn't trade it long term! We do get snow here, but only on the mountains and more and more infrequently. A friend of mine did get to experience skiing on Christmas Day here, at Mt Baw Baw (I could be confusing which mountain) once!
Load More Replies... Haha- I'd rather be here in the cold then feel threatened by Florida Man!
Load More Replies... Seriously cold, but I think the Canadians are just enjoying their moment in the spotlight, as in fact these temperatures are not at all unusual in Alberta. I've skied there three times, the coldest of which was at a daytime high of -35C (Jasper, quite a way North of Calgary, nearly on a line with Edmonton). Once the temperature rises above about -15 you'll see people out and about wearing just a T-shirt...
Welp I guess where the polar vortex went when we lost the freezing weather from Finland
As a person born and raised in Alberta I can't be happier to see them suffer the effects of climate change. People don't understand just how messed up it is that oil companies RULE that province and because they pay well, most Albertans are happy to work for them and help ruin the planet. The government of AB actually calls diversification the "d-word" and they actively work against projects that could turn the economy away from resource extraction. Southern AB gets 300 days of sunshine a year, and there are always strong cold winds coming through the Crowsnest Pass for wind farm operations. The Smith govt has been working to prevent expansion of those projects, preventing the province from exporting more electricity. AB also has all the minerals required to become a powerhouse of solar panel exports, but anything that's not oil and gas is prevented from accelerating. Let them all suffer on the pyre of their own misfortune. They helped cause this
You do realize we aren't all the ucp, right? And that many, many Albertans who have nothing to do with these policies are also being affected?
Load More Replies... There was a report on NPR, which seemed to spread the environmentalist echo chamber about HORROR OF HORRORS! a utility that was building a new gas-fueled plant (One of many utilities). Folks, I'd like to believe that one day, surprisingly soon, we'll be living in a society that its mostly fueled by green energy, whether including thorium reactors or not. But even in a society with a negative output of carbon dioxide, there will always be room for some gas-produced electricity and some places where you'd better have an ICE truck.
It's not global warming, it's climate change. Some places will get warmer, others won't. Scotland's just had its warmest January day on record, but the UK as a whole is predicted to get cold when the gulf stream switches off.
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