Another extreme cold warning has come down for Prince Albert, and looks to be sticking around for a few days. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Dangerous Wind Chill

Extreme cold warning for Prince Albert as wind chills hit lowest point yet

Jan 5, 2022 | 12:00 PM

The coldest windchill values of the season so far are settling into Prince Albert over the next couple of days, and they could bring frostbite in minutes for anyone caught out in them.

According to Environment Canada, on Wednesday morning the windchill made temperatures already below -30 C feel like -46 C. Prince Albert and much of the rest of the province will be in for more of the same this evening.

“Both Thursday and Friday mornings look quite cold,” said Environment Canada regional meteorologist Terri Lang. “Overnight lows will bottom out to at least -35 C if not colder than that, maybe even approaching -40 C.”

Lang said she expected extreme cold warnings to be issued throughout the week, and the first of them came down last night. Both tonight and tomorrow will be colder than Tuesday, however.

“Really cold temperatures, probably back into those extreme cold warnings again as temperatures plummet and the windchills go up,” Lang said. “We will see some recovery toward the weekend.”

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That recovery won’t be too dramatic at first, however, as the weekend shapes up to be little warmer than the week that preceded it. If you want to get into a genuine warm-up, you’ll have to wait until next week.

“It’ll be slightly less cold (on the weekend), I don’t want to say it will be warmer so I’ll say it will be less cold,” Lang said. “Overnight lows are still in the -30 C range with daytime highs struggling to reach the mid -20s. It’s all relative.”

The one piece of good news for the next two or three days is that while windchill is definitely still present, strong gusts aren’t likely to be part of the problem. This, according to Lang, is all part of the deal when it comes to extreme cold.

“When we get really cold temperatures, it’s often caused by a ridge of arctic high pressure,” Lang said. “High pressure tends not to have wind associated with it, or very light winds so that’s the good point about it.”

Lang added the week ahead, starting on Monday, will see a warm-up and it will continue into the middle of next week, with temperatures quickly reaching seasonal values or warmer, possibly even getting close to the zero mark. She also said this will be true not only for Prince Albert but for most of Western Canada, as Alberta could see temperatures above zero.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP