Most of the Northwest Territories is bracing for days of wind chill below -50 stretching from Wednesday night through to the weekend.
Environment and Climate Change Canada issued an extreme cold warning on Wednesday covering Yellowknife and most of the Tłı̨chǫ, Sahtu and Beaufort Delta regions.
“A multi-day episode of very cold wind chills is expected,” the federal agency wrote.
“Extreme cold with wind chill values between -50 to -55 is expected.
“Slight improvement of these extreme cold values is expected during the daytime hours. Some regions will see these extreme cold values persist into the weekend.”
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Yellowknife was expected to reach -40C even without wind chill overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, while the temperature in Norman Wells was forecast to drop to -41C.
Temperatures are expected to remain a little warmer – above -30C – in the Dehcho and South Slave for the next few days, though forecasts suggest the brutal cold might reach those regions early next week.
Much of the NWT enjoyed an unusually warm December, while Inuvik has experienced far more snow than is normally the case. Inuvik’s first sunrise of 2024, on Saturday, is likely to be a clear day according to forecasters, with a high of -32C.
