Frigid Winnipeg weather is anything but a joke

It's April Fools' Day, which is supposed to be a day of good-natured pranks on your friends, but today's weather is anything but 'good-natured' for residents of central Canada

Winnipeg saw a low temperature this morning of -18°C, and although they got up to a 'balmy' -5 degrees as their afternoon high, they're expected to plunge down to -19°C overnight tonight!

[ Related: Winnipeg dips to coldest April temperature in 16 years ]

According to CBC News, to find a colder temperature for Winnipeg in April, you need to look back nearly 16 years, to April 8th, 1997, when the temperature got down to -19.3°C. Environment Canada records the coldest day for the city on April 1st was actually the year before that, in 1996, when it reached -22.9°C.

[ More Geekquinox: Expert predicts worst season ever for allergy sufferers ]

What's driving the mercury down so far right now?

The same storm system that's currently pushing snow squalls and flurries over southwestern Ontario, and snow and rain over southern Quebec, and rain over New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The winds spiraling into back of this weather system are drawing frigid Arctic air down from the north, across Manitoba today and tomorrow.

A weak weather system moving across the prairies looks like it might push the mercury up over the freezing mark on Wednesday, but it'll bring rain at the same time, so it won't be much of a respite before temperatures drop again for the rest of the week.

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