Much of the Northwest Territories is shivering under extreme cold warnings set to last into Monday – but some areas could see temperatures rise above freezing just days later.
Extreme cold warnings for more than a dozen areas of the NWT were in place as of Sunday morning. The warnings, issued by Environment Canada, are usually triggered in the territory by temperatures of lower than -50C with wind chill.
“Extreme cold conditions will moderate in the afternoon then redevelop for most communities into Monday morning,” Environment Canada said.
However, while Monday will be similarly cold, some parts of the NWT are forecast to warm all the way up to positive temperatures by Thursday this week.
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Fort Simpson, with an overnight low of -35C on Sunday, is forecast to reach a high of 0C on Wednesday. Fort Liard is forecast to reach 2C on Thursday.
Yellowknife is expected to enjoy a similar warm spell without reaching quite those highs.
In Yellowknife, the forecast as of Sunday calls for highs of -10C on Wednesday and -7C on Thursday.
Only some far-northern communities, like Sachs Harbour, are not expected to see any midweek improvement in conditions.
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Some parts of the NWT are enduring one of the colder winters in recent memory.
Yellowknife has so far had 41 days where the low dipped below -30C this winter (without wind chill), including eight days of lows below -40C. By comparison, the winter of 2007-08 – which brought one of the city’s longest cold snaps in decades – registered 44 days below -30C.
