Winter blankets Edmonton
Posted January 9, 2024 5:00 pm.
Last Updated January 9, 2024 7:50 pm.
Edmonton has its first real taste of winter Tuesday after a warm and less snowy start to the season. This comes as scientists say 2023 was the warmest year on record.
January 9, may as well have been the first day of winter for Edmonton — with the most snow the city has seen all season — environment and climate change Canada forecasting temperatures dropping to -30ºC by the end of the week.
Ironically, it comes the same day climate scientists in the European Union declared 2023 the hottest year on record. Canada’s meteorologists say our country was no different, but clarify that while global temperatures are rising, our warm Christmas was something else.
“December, being the warmest on record, part of that is going the be the weather pattern that’s set up in part because of the El Niño the strong El Niño we have at this time,” said Alysa Pederson, a Meteorologist with Environment And Climate Change Canada.
While most of us may be grumbling about having to brush off the car, Peter Burgess is camping out in the middle of it this week. In his fifth and final year of the Freezing Father campaign, which raises money for the Stollery Children’s Hospital.
“I’m just getting too old. Too many aches and pains just trying to stand up, rolling around,” explained Burgess.
Burgess started camping out in Edmonton’s Rainbow Valley campground in 2017 — braving the arctic temperatures and raising over $150-thousand to date for the Stollery Children’s Hospital. Burgess’ 3-year-old daughter Elan was taken there after suffering a seizure in 2007, where she died two days later.
“My favorite item that we’ve purchased, it’s small, but it’s a light that they shine on a child’s arm or wrist, when they’re trying to hook up an IV and it means they don’t have to try five times,” explained Burgess.
With temperatures set to drop by the end of the week, Burgess says that’s when the real challenge will begin — but adds — he’s been through worse.
“The coldest day we’ve been down here is -38ºC with no windchill, so I think we’ll be okay.”
