Calgary facing extreme cold warning with -40°C wind chills expected

Feb 5 2019, 12:10 am

It’s a tad chilly in Calgary today.

Well, not just the City of Calgary, but nearly the entirety of the province of Alberta has fallen under an Environment Canada extreme cold warning as of Monday morning.

wind chills

Parts of Alberta under an extreme cold warning (Environment Canada)

To be clear, that’s not a “statement” or an “alert” here — we’re talking a full-blown warning that frostbite is a very real possibility if you spend too much time outside.

Temperatures are expected to drop down to -26°C, though the warning states that, with the wind chill, it could feel closer to -40°C.

wind chills

Calgary weather this week (Environment Canada)

A bit of snow will accompany the freezing temperatures on Monday, along with a few more flakes making their way into YYC on Friday.

Tuesday through Thursday will see some sun, but don’t expect it to warm those chilly bones any time soon, as the warmest least cold it’s going to get will be -10°C on Thursday.

Northern parts of Alberta are getting it even worse, with wind chills of -50°C sweeping through the province.

To provide a little context, the weather on Mars — that red planet sitting 54.6 million km further away from the sun than us here in Earth — on February 2 saw a low of -73°C and a high of -4°C, meaning that we’re currently experiencing the average Mars temperature over here in Calgary, Alberta.

Environment Canada warns anyone in the regions that have fallen under the extreme cold warning (so basically all Albertans) to cover up and watch out for cold-related symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, muscle pain, numbness, or colour change in fingers and toes.

Also, keep in mind that if it is too cold for you to be outside, the same goes for your pets.

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