The Great Deepfreeze of January 2024

I'll be updating this post over the next few days, as the deepfreeze works its way along. It's always tough to write about these things while they're still ongoing, because there's so much stuff going on, and today's extreme cold might pale compared to tomorrow's. So if you're looking for the most recent and frequent updates head to:

• https://twitter.com/yegwxnerdery
• https://bsky.app/profile/yegwxnerdery.bsky.social
• https://mstdn.ca/@yegwxnerdery

As of January 13th the forecasts have moderated a bit, and at least as far as Edmonton is concerned it looks like January 12th was probably The Big Day. 

These dashboards will mostly be set for Edmonton, but it was cold across the west, so you can select other cities with the dropdowns.

• Edmonton's High was our 2nd coldest January 12th on record, and the Low was 4th coldest.
• Calgary had their 2nd coldest High & Low.
• Kelowna had their 2nd coldest High & #1 coldest Low
• Vancouver had their 4th coldest High & #1 coldest Low

For Edmonton & Calgary this was the first -30°C High since 2004. 

Saskatoon got one too, but it also had some in 2022, 2021 & 2008.

Calgary had its first Low of -35°C since 2005. 

Edmonton also had some in 2020, 2008 & 2004. 

And in Saskatoon & Regina a lot of years get one or two.

Edmonton hasn't officially hit -40°C since 1972, and for Calgary it's 1954. 

But Saskatoon still gets them somewhat regularly. January 12th was its first -41°C since 2019, and before that 2009 & 2004.

Kelowna's January 12th Low of -28.9°C was the first time that they'd reached -28°C since 2005. 

And they've only ever recorded 18 Lows below -28°C.

The Edmonton airport's history only goes back to the 1960s, so it's not super long. 

But January 12th's High of -34.4°C was its coldest ever recorded. 

The Low of -45.9°C was its 3rd coldest.

For the stations with a century+ of history, these kind of temperatures don't really rank historically. 

But just since the 1970s January 12th Low was Edmonton's 6th coldest, Calgary's 23rd, and Saskatoon's 17th. 

And for High temperatures since 1950, January 12th's High was Edmonton's 2nd coldest, and Calgary's 8th coldest.

That's it for now.

We've still got a couple cold days to go, and soon we'll be talking about the streaks of X days in-a-row below Y, because we're going to be bumping up against some once-in-a-generation records.