If you’ve been wondering where the cold temperatures have been, wonder no longer.
A sudden drop is now upon us as a cold air mass has moved in from the North, bringing ‘near-normal’ conditions for the first half of January. The NWT experienced a significantly warmer-than-normal December, thanks to the influence of El Nino, an atmospheric phenomenon that brings warm air from the Pacific Ocean
“The month of December for Yellowknife, for instance, was the second warmest December on record out of 82 years, and the mean temperature in December was, on average, eight degrees above the normal,” said Justin Shelley, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
However, he added that the weather pattern is shifting and the cold air that has been held at bay for most of the winter is starting to slump farther south under the influence of a larger-scale synoptic pattern.
“Whereas we’ve had predominantly upper-level ridging over the western part of the continent for all of December, we’re starting to see that shift a bit farther west, and that is going to allow those colder temperatures to slump down from the north in towards for basically all of the Northwest Territories,” he said.
Shelley said that the normal daytime high for the Yellowknife area is about -23 C. He said that the forecast for the next few days shows temperatures at or around -30 C, which is a bit colder than normal for this time of year.
Much of the NWT was under an ‘multi-day’ extreme cold warning, which was issued on Wednesday by ECCC, but that warning was ended on Thursday.
Shelley also mentioned that even during El Nino seasons, it is not unusual to get some form of cold snap somewhere in the winter season, and that this overall winter season is still expected to be above normal on average.
He advised residents to take the necessary precautions, such as dressing warmly, checking their vehicles, and keeping up to date with the current weather forecast and alerts, as there is also the chance of snowfall and dangerous wind chills.