Clippers get credit for cold snap
Posted Jan 24, 2011 03:12:54 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Our frigid temperatures of late can be blamed on the weather phenomenon known as an Alberta Clipper.
Those systems, according to Environment Canada chief climatologist David Phillips, move very quickly across the country and draw mild air from the south as they arrive. But in their wake, Phillips says, cold air rushes down from the North Pole, leaving us in a deep freeze.
“The battle ground seems to be southern Canada where we’re seeing these wild temperature swings,” notes Phillips, who also points out that the bright side to an Alberta Clipper is that it doesn’t often bring a lot of snow with all that cold.
The record low temperature for this day was minus 22.2 degrees Celsius, set back in the winter of 1976. Environment Canada registered a temperature reading of minus 24 at the Region of Waterloo International Airport early this morning, establishing a new mark for cold on this day.
Phillips says this kind of cold comes as a shock because we’re simply not used to it. We haven’t felt this kind of cold since February, 2009, when the temperature plunged to minus 29.
“Last year, you had one day when the temperature got to minus 21,” Phillips recalls. “Already in January of this year, you’ve already had about three or four of those days.”
If the cold weather is just not your thing, take heart. We’re expecting it to warm up overnight and reach a high of minus one tomorrow, marking the end of this cold snap.
And Phillips has even better news for those longing for the warmer days ahead.
“If you take all of the temperatures from the last 30 years in Waterloo Region, and you average them out, this would be the moment that we bottom out. This is the valley,” Phillips says brightly. “This is what we call the ‘dead of winter’ and every day now, at least statistically, becomes just a little milder than the previous day.”
Baseball, anyone?
