For those of us who have been praying diligently for a break from the cold temperatures of February, better pray harder.  

As if it hasn't been cold enough lately, Environment Canada is saying to expect another bout of extreme temperatures starting tomorrow (February 24).  Today has seen snow and cloudy skies which will continue into tonight.  Tomorrow morning the sky will clear and with the clearing comes another influx of very cold arctic air, according to Environment Canada Meteorologist Stephen Vallee.

"With that arctic air, we're looking at nighttime lows near or in the minus 30's producing wind chills near or in the minus 40's."  

Even though it seems brutally cold, Vallee says these kinds of temperatures aren't unusual for this time of year.  "These temperatures are definitely well below the normal for this time, however, these aren't record-setting temperatures in any way."

A check on the record books shows overnight lows in the minus 30's actually will come very close to our all-time record lows,  Minus 32.2 recorded in 1889 is today's.  

With one or two small breaks, the cold will have lasted all of February and Vallee says it's likely going to last into March as well.

"It does look that way," says Vallee.  Things will really cool off on beginning Monday morning which will likely persist into Tuesday.  We may see some improvement in temperatures and wind chill values on Wednesday then we're looking at the start of March at the end of next week.  The best we can hope for in the first few days of March will be daytime highs in the negative single digits but that's like best case scenario.  It's much more likely that we'll have daytime highs somewhere in the minus teens."

We wondered, if the old adage of March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb is actually true, do temperatures in the range Vallee is talking about qualify as, lion-like?

"I would take it as meaning that, yes.  Those cold temperatures would be significant weather conditions."

So that begs the question, "when will winter end?"  Vallee isn't getting sucked in by that one.  "I don't have a prediction," he laughs.  "Again out longest range model going out to that first week of March, maybe we'll begin to approach temperatures around normal, so highs around zero degrees but that's pretty far away at this point."

Vallee says with the temperatures coming on Monday to be aware of extreme cold warnings that may be issued later this weekend for the province of Alberta.  He says when wind chills approach the minus 40's is also when we can see frostbite occur in a few minutes on exposed skin. 

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