Frozen furnaces, dead batteries and icy cold arctic air are slated to stay around for the rest of the week, a local meteorologist says.
A polar vortex plunged the province into a bitter cold spell over the weekend, which set 15 cold-weather records in Alberta on Monday alone and put the province under an extreme cold warning. Across Alberta this past weekend, 26 new record lows were set.
St. Albert saw many of its school buses knocked out of operation, with Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools suspending its bus service entirely on Monday and Tuesday.
In Edmonton, temperatures reached a low of -40.8 C on Monday, Sara Hoffman, meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada said – five degrees colder than the old record set for that day in 1979, which was -35.8 C.
The mercury at the St. Albert Research Station dropped to about -37.7 C early that morning, according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada. Wind chill brought that down into the -40 C range for the duration of the morning.
On Sunday, temperatures recorded at that station dropped even further, hitting a low of -41 C around 8 a.m. The highest temperature reached Sunday was -26.4 C (-33 C with wind chill) at around 3 p.m.
Earlier in the weekend, temperatures recorded at that station Saturday reached a high of -24.5 C (-28 C with wind chill) at about noon that day and dropped below -30 C by 7 p.m. At 11 p.m., the temperature had dropped to -36.2 C, or -44 C with wind chill.
Hoffman said while this weather is cold, it might seem even more frigid after the months of warm weather the region had. Edmonton had the 14th warmest January on record, out of 141 years of record keeping.
"It feels maybe a bit more jarring with this event to folks but its certainly happened before, having a cold air outbreak," Hoffman said.
Hoffman said it is common to see temperatures plunge this low in the winter at least once.
"This is the third year in a row that we've had (an) arctic air outbreak of this magnitude. So it feels like deja vu for us, certainly, but it's a little bit more rare in February, when we look back on the climate record," Hoffman said.
While temperatures are plummeting, drivers across the city are frustrated by dead batteries and malfunctioning furnaces.
Roadrunner Towing manager Sheena Schlachter told the Gazette Tuesday they were seeing a four- or five-hour wait time for their team to respond to calls. Drivers could be waiting for up to eight hours, Schlachter said, depending on the time of day. On a typical day, wait times for services are around one hour.
"We are extremely busy," Schlachter said.
"We've got everyone out all day, every day."
Schlachter said most of the calls are for boosts and towing services.
The annual cold snap is typically the busiest few weeks of the year for the business, where they work around the clock for a few weeks and then things settle down again to regular call volumes.
Plumbing and heating businesses are also seeing a surge in calls this week. Curtis Crouse from A-1 Heating said they are getting a lot of calls for furnaces going down.
"It's more (calls) in volume and it's a lot more crucial," Crouse said, adding when the heat in the house goes, the home begins to quickly cool down in these icy temperatures.
Crouse said their on-call team received around 40 calls over the weekend, compared to usual busy weekends with a dozen calls.
"Basically three to four times the volume you'd normally see on a weekend," Crouse said, adding they are working around the clock to help keep people warm.
Crouse and his team do their best to get to everyone in the same day.
Temperature are expected to stay cold until the end of the week and Hoffman warned frostbite can happen in just a few minutes in these low temperatures.
Signs of frostbite include skin becoming white, numb or waxy to the touch. Hypothermia can set in quickly in these conditions and Hoffman said it's best to dress appropriately for the weather and to stay dry.
Any strenuous work outside can lead to sweating and increase the chance of hypothermia. It's also important to keep an eye on pets and children, as they are more susceptible to cold injuries, Hoffman said.
