Hi Stewart,

Just phone up to my uncle and unfortunately they are all sick with flu and 2 days ago their water main pipe burst and flooded their kitchen floor and into the living room and hallway which eventually leaked to the basement and washing machine room area.  I was shocked to hear that because I thought in Canada you don't get burst pipes like in the UK does and the houses built there was designed to withstand arctic temps.  They wont be please to see another -25C min and -18C max on Tuesday when I arrive. I will be staying at my other Aunt house until they get better and sort out their house.  Latest ensembles show it will warm up a bit to 0C uppers for few days before diving again on time for my birthday and to the rest of my trip.

-23 F in Minneapolis at the moment, with the wind it feels like -47F

Thats -30c and -44c respectively

Cold? What cold?

Currently 23c in Santa Monica, California.  Been a very warm and dry December and beginning to January with no let up in the reliable timeframe. 27c on Christmas day with the highest temperature being 29c on the 16th December.  Since December 1st we have had 9 days of 25c or above, and 10 days of 21c-24c.  Normal for this time of year is around 17c, so significantly above normal warmth.

The worrying part is that this is our wettest time of year and rainfall has been near non-existant this winter.  Several days have seen barely a sprinkling, and on the back of the driest year on record in LA, this lack of rain is bad news.  The mountains are low on snowpack to sustain the summer water requirements and we will need to go some way in late January through April to make up for that lack of snow.  I would not be surprised to see huge water shortages this coming summer in California, which will invoke restricted water usage and havoc in my vegetable garden.  I am praying for a Pineapple Express to start up during the second half of winter.

Just a note on the cold weather elsewhere. My girlfriend's parents reported that in Southwest Missouri (Springfield), the high temperature maxed out at -15c today, 21c below their normal max of 6c.  Already the mercury is dropping fast with a low in the low to mid-20s tonight!

Great pix of Chicago

Great pic indeed, they have had a cracking run of weather over there

Truly beautiful picture and my wife now first time to experience such cold weather which is far more colder than Jan 2005 which we saw -16C max and -25C at night.  This time Chicago reached -27C this morning and only reached -25C max but there no idea if that really a max because -19C was logged on weatherbug after midnight as they reset the temps midnight to midnight.  I asked her how she felt experiencing it and said is very painful cold outside and barely took few pictures including the thermometer she put on the ground which was blurry but show around -20C.  Dewpoint is bone chilling -27 to -28C range.  It can make your tears freeze too.

Toronto will be -18C max when I arrive there tomorrow follow by -23C tomorrow night. but tonight will reach -25C so I just miss the most coldest night but better than nothing. 

Hope you can and do take up any chance next time.   I am green with envy they are living there so they can easily experience it while us here to book a holiday and gamble it if you will experience such conditions or not. I feel lucky that I can able to see it myself tomorrow when I arrive there just in a nick of time before it get milder to just tad above freezing by the weekend before dropping off again.  Not sure if there will be another arctic outbreak before I come back here but latest ensembles looking very good for prolonged -10 to -15C uppers days after a short milder blip at the weekend.

Don't recall this thread being so busy in a long time, wonder why?!  

Bitterly cold in southern Ontario this morning and interestingly (and unusually) the coldest readings are in the SW rather than eastern ON:

Windsor -24c/ windchill -38c
London -26c/-41c
Hamilton -24c/-38c
Toronto -24c/-39c

For Toronto Pearson it's the coldest temp since 2005 and if it gets down to -25c then it will be the coldest since 1994 (-31c).

Just athought about experiencing low temps.Had a week in Greenland  in early  March 2012.Experienced night temp of -40c (F and celsius have the same value at this level)and day temps widely around -30- to -35

Stayed most of time at Illulisat on west coast near Disco bay doing tours and husky trekking.5 nights with northern lights!

Any pics of Niagra Falls-

has it frozen over yet- it doesnt do it very often?

S

Doesn't look frozen to me!

http://www.earthcam.com/canada/niagarafalls/

Cheers-

looks like lots of pancake ice at the bottom- maybe a few more days of extreme cold....

S

I'm assuming the spray is freezing in mid air.. impressive scene!

It might be nice to talk about experiencing the sort of cold that is gripping parts of n. america , but listening to a rancher from n. dakota describing just how brutal it was to work outside with the cattle you might think again all day breaking ice because keeping troughs flowing is crucial to keeping the cows alive .

Hey folks,

Gandalf, Niagara i've never seen totally frozen...think it hasn't even came close for a good 10 years or so. Tonight, i heard a report earlier of Ice building up on the Niagara river in NY state which was causing flooding concerns, one to watch over the next 24hrs. Lake Ontario certainly in Hamilton and in Toronto Harbour completely frozen as these two pics show :

This is Hamilton Harbour, or the entrance to it....no boats from the Welland Canal entering this in the near future!

This shot is taken from the other side of Toronto Island Airport, in the Harbour this morning. good layer of Ice

This is what -40c windchill looks like from the approaches to Toronto this morning

Saw this pic this morning on TWN's twiter feed and thought it was absolutely spectacular

So, yep i'm jealous i'm missing the polar vortex action, but not majorly so. As discussed above, pipes do freeze even in Ontario, alot of problems associated with this deep chill, fortunately we have a friend who is keeping the house warm and a garage for the car to help prevent lasting frost damage. Jiries, flying over there i hope made it as YYZ had a ground stop on all movements until 10am Eastern this morning due to the extreme cold and danger to life if exposed outdoors for more than 5mins.

I'm sure the folk in Yellowknife though are having a good laugh at Torontorians struggling, even school was canx, although i notice Hamilton braved that decision to the parents! Trash collection also being deferred until Thursday in Hamilton due to the extreme cold temps.

And to think by the time i get back on friday lunchtime and over the weekend it'll all be a distant memory, current temps of +3c on saturday and rain couldn't make it up!

Take Care

Great photos - thanks Stewart! Glad to hear you have someone looking after your house!

Yesterday's low was -24.2c at Pearson so a match of the reading in January 2005 and the coldest day since then.

Looks like a very mild weekend upcoming as you note Stewart but cooling off after that, with possibility of some more arctic air by the following weekend.

Enjoy

You are due quite a warm up there on Saturday aren't you Jiries ? 10-20mm rain with temps of 7c before a cool down with snow showers from Sunday onwards ?