Bitter Arctic cold grips the prairie provinces, with the worst possibly yet to come

From the eastern slopes of the Rockies to shores of Lake Superior, the polar vortex is once again plunging Canadians into the deep freeze this week.

After enjoying a brief respite along with the rest of Canada last week, the winter chills are back across the Prairie provinces and northwestern Ontario. Although the cold has been creeping in over the past few days, they reached an extreme on Monday morning as temperatures reached well into the -30s Celsius and the winds pushed those extremes even further, making it feel like it was in the -40s, and even a hair's-breadth away from -50 in some places. Although daily highs managed to reach around -20 C yesterday afternoon, providing a little bit of relief for winter-weary residents, it's another dip into the deep-freeze this morning thanks to the cold and wind.

Wind chill warnings put into effect over the past couple of days are still in effect across southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba, advising of wind chills as low as -45 this morning. Although these conditions are part and parcel with living in the prairies, these warnings are a useful reminder that this extreme combination of cold and wind can freeze skin in less than five minutes and raise the risk of hypothermia for anyone who is out in this weather for any length of time.

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This pattern of cold days and frigid nights is set to play out every day for the rest of the week, at least for Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northern Ontario. While the cold persists further east, southern Alberta should be seeing a bit of a warm-spell over the next couple of days, actually pushing temperatures up to around the freezing mark around Calgary for Wednesday and into the negative single-digits for communities further north.

However, that isn't set to last. Moving into the weekend, this blast of frigid weather is promising to deepen even further, pushing over Alberta and spreading into southern Ontario and Quebec as well. The 'core' of this extreme cold is expected through Saskatchewan, as temperatures on Saturday morning could dip as low as -40 C, and wind chills could drive down into the -50s. With this cold spreading out, and pushing what's already impacting the prairies farther to the east, this weekend is setting up to possibly be one of the coldest so far this season for many Canadians.

(Photo courtesy: The Canadian Press)

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