Polar vortex grips Canada, but Arctic conditions should lift by Christmas

CTV Atlantic: Frigid temps remain across Maritimes The bitter cold combined with snow in pockets of the Maritimes made for treacherous driving conditions on Saturday. CTV's Jonathan MacInnis

For Canadians unhappy with the recent blast of snow and biting cold from coast to coast, Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips has a gentle reminder: winter doesn’t officially arrive until next Wednesday.

“This is like, the pre-winter weather,” Phillips told CTV News Channel on Friday.

Canadians across all provinces woke up to intense winter conditions on Friday. In B.C., at least three deaths could be linked to extreme cold there in December, according to the B.C. coroners’ service. A cold snap in New Brunswick has prompted schools closures and a province-wide extreme cold warning. On Saturday, Winnipeg is expected to see temperatures drop as low as -29 C.

“It’s a pretty tough day out there,” Phillips said. “It’s hitting us a lot from our front door and back door.”

A key factor in the cold snap is the polar vortex currently gripping western Canada. The Arctic air mass settled over B.C. and Alberta about 10 days ago and, in Phillips words, “is just staying put.”

“Like an unwanted house guest, it won’t leave and it just stays there and produces some record cold temperatures,” he said.

But for the warm-blooded, there is good news. Phillips says the polar vortex is on its way out, and that warmer conditions should settle in over the following weeks.

“We’re going to see some warmer conditions arrive across all of Canada, ironically, about the first day of winter,” he said. “And then we’ll have a pretty calm kind of situation we think right until the Christmas period.”