KENORA — Dangerously cold conditions are persisting across the region.
Environment Canada is maintaining orange-coded cold warnings from the Manitoba boundary east through Shabaqua and points north. The weather office says with the wind, conditions will feel like -40 C to -45 C. In the very far north near Hudson Bay, it could feel closer to -50 C.
The warnings are forecast to continue through the weekend.
Trudy Kidd, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said daytime highs in places like Kenora are colder than usual overnight lows.
“When we’re looking at temperatures, we’re actually seeing temperatures in the minus 20s and those are our daytime highs,” she said. “So, for example, Kenora — typically, a daytime high would be minus 12 and overnight, it would be minus 21.”
“We’re actually seeing our daytime highs even colder than what we would experience overnight.”
Factoring in the wind, conditions feel much colder and the weather office’s warnings say frostbite can develop “within minutes” on exposed skin.
“It’s dangerously cold, really,” Kidd said. “It’s really important for people to pay attention to this extreme cold — this puts everyone at risk, and especially when it lasts this long, we want people to take extra care.”
Under Environment Canada’s new colour-coded system, orange warnings indicate “severe” weather conditions that are “likely to cause significant damage, disruption or health impacts,” and their impacts are “major, widespread and/or may last a few days.”
“That orange is also playing into the fact that we expect high impacts from this,” Kidd said. “When you have this long duration (of) extreme cold, it can make things more risky for folks.”
“We can see water pipes burst, there might be extra workload on health services if there are cases of frostbite, hypothermia and other cold-related injuries.”
“Watch for colour changes on fingers and toes, pain, numbness, a tingling sensation or swelling,” Environment Canada’s warnings say. “If present, move indoors and begin warming.”
Other symptoms to watch out for include shortness of breath, chest pain, muscle pain and weakness.
The weather office says those most at risk include young children, older adults, people with chronic illnesses, people working or exercising outdoors and people without proper shelter.
“Outdoor workers should take regularly scheduled breaks to warm up,” officials say.
-With files from Sheri Leviski-Kotyk
