Environment Canada has issued an extreme cold warning for the Fort Saskatchewan – Vegreville – Redwater – Smoky Lake areas due to “extremely cold wind chills near -40°C,” and expects “temperatures will moderate by this afternoon, but extreme cold may return tonight in some regions.”
“The windchill criteria that we’re looking at for this alert is about -40°C, so out toward Vegreville and Mundare it’s around -38°C, minus 39°C,” said Eric Van Lochem, an operational meteorologist with Environment Canada.
Meanwhile the windchill values in Edmonton is forecast for about -33°C, and part of the reason for that is the “urban heat-island effect,” and “the wind to the East of the city are just a hair stronger,” Van Lochem said.
“Dress in layers, stay inside if you can until temperatures start to rise and the temperatures improve, [and] keep pets inside,” Van Lochem said.
The good news? Van Lochem said that temperatures are expected to moderate in the coming days.
“We’re looking at unseasonably cold conditions today and into tomorrow as well, so the next couple of nights will be quite cold. We may actually see this extreme cold continue into tomorrow morning as well,
“Thereafter, as we get toward mid-week, the cold is going to moderate quite a bit, so the temperatures are going to rapidly start to rise. It’s not like a Chinook or anything like that, but we will see temperatures rising more toward what’s to be expected for this time of year, so highs of around 0°C and lows of around -10°C.”
