A frosty morning low of -38.8°C on March 22,Fort Severn. Ontario

A frosty morning low of -38.8°C on March 22, Fort Severn. Ontario

Fort Severn won the prize for the coldest reading measured in Ontario so far this season. It’s bitterly cold, but still historically warm compared to past winters
It’s the first week of spring, but Fort Severn scored Ontario’s coldest temperature of the season on March 22 when the province’s northernmost community saw a frosty morning low of -38.8°C.

A temperature closing in on 40 below zero is cold. Bitterly cold. The kind of cold that allows frostbite to develop in mere minutes.Fort Severn’s reading beats the previous warmest minimum temperature on record for Ontario by one-tenth of one degree. The old record was a province-wide low temperature of -38.9°C measured in Peawanuck during the 2001-02 season.

Moosonee has only seen four days this season with a temperature of -30°C or colder, falling far short of their normal count of about 27 days—nearly a full month—with temperatures that should dip below that frigid mark. Timmins to the south typically notches 15 days at or below -30°C. This year, though, they only reached that chilly benchmark twice.

Environment, Canada

Parts of Ontario will see 30 to 40 cm of snow this week

A sluggish system tracking in from stateside means a prolonged snowfall affair for northwestern Ontario over multiple days this week, with the potential for totals to reach 30-40 cm for parts of the region
Thunder Bay, Ont., avoided a white Christmas last year and has received a lower-than-normal snowpack this past winter, but it seems like its dry luck is finally running out. Contrary to what it normally sees, Thunder Bay's deepest snowpack has just been 25 cm since winter arrived. Now, with spring here, Mother Nature will correct that in a hurry with an incoming and slow-moving Colorado low.

Some areas could be in line for 30-40 cm, including Thunder Bay. Snowfall warnings and winter weather travel advisories are in place.
Regardless of the final totals, travelling will be treacherous during the storm, especially along the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 11. Road closures are a real possibility. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve.

By Sunday evening, periods of snowfall will pivot across the region and fill in, with rates gradually picking up to 1 cm an hour through the overnight. As Monday progresses, snowfall rates will hover close to 1 cm an hour through most of the day for areas near Lake Superior, with the highest risk of blowing snow along the shorelines.Come Tuesday, the heaviest snowfall rates of the event will occur, jumping to anywhere from 1-3 cm of an hour through the first half of the day.

Environment, Canada

Forecasters see the potential for auroras to fill the night sky over Canada late Sunday

A geomagnetic storm washing over Earth could spark a vivid display of auroras in the skies over Canada late Sunday night.
While the peak of the storm is expected to produce the best show over parts of Asia and Europe, the latest forecasts call for solid odds of photogenic auroras for sections of Canada expecting clear skies Sunday night.
Sunday’s aurora potential arrives courtesy of a powerful coronal mass ejection (CME), a release of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s exceptionally hot outer atmosphere.

A CME hitting Earth allows charged particles to seep into the upper atmosphere around the magnetic north pole, ionizing gasses like oxygen and nitrogen in a striking display of colours that wiggle across the night sky.

This weekend’s geomagnetic storm was powerful enough to register as a ‘severe’ G4 on the G-scale, which scientists use to measure the intensity of a geomagnetic storm. The scale ranges from from G1 (minor) on the low end to G5 (extreme) on the high end.

Nice - at least I know now WIFI works at -38.8C

In reply to tigga

Weee Feeeeeeeeeee works