The sky is a refreshing blue. The frost that hung in the air this morning is clinging to the trees. The white against the black branches makes the whole day wonderful. The cloudless skies has the sun adding sparkles to the new fallen snow. It is a beautiful January day except that the thermometer read -32 C this morning and we are only expecting a high of -22C today with the temperatures plummeting again this evening.
Extreme cold warnings have been set out.
I am sitting quite comfortably at my kitchen table writing this column. Our new gas furnace is providing a much more even heat than did our former furnace. Around the neighbourhood there is a constant stream of vapour being streamed into the air by furnace exhaust. This is our first extreme cold weather week of the new year.
All the major news media groups are running stories letting us know that we are not prepared for the extreme weather that we can expect in the future. The building codes that we follow may not prevent extreme damage to homes and buildings.
An example that was used came from the flooding in the community of Sainte-Marie located on the Chaudierre River. The river regularly floods but this past year the flood was much greater. Residents had been urged to water-proof their homes by putting a water barrier around their basements. It kept the water out, but this past summer with extreme flooding the great waterproofing caused homes to float up from their bases and when the water receded, many of the homes were tilted when they settled. Archimedes principal came into play and pushed the homes up from their bases. Many homes are no longer habitable.
Another example were the hurricanes that devastated much on Newfoundland. The 200 km winds tore roofs off homes and buildings. The winds acting on the water caused huge erosions that again eroded the shoreline and buildings toppled into the Atlantic. What changes in building codes and where homes can be built should be implemented Canada wide?
Living in Northwestern Ontario and surrounded by forests, we can’t dismiss huge fires that devastated Fort McMurray in Alberta, nor the fires that have ripped across large swaths of British Columbia and California. What steps should the community take to protect it from raging forest fires?
Communities in British Columbia have recorded the highest temperature ever in Canada and that has caused heat issues with elderly in those communities.
In 2022 we witnessed an extreme cold weather pattern for most of January. This year the expected cold has not arrived until this past weekend. What will our winters be like? Will they be warmer or be marked with longer periods of extreme cold?
Former publisher
Fort Frances Times
