Temperature

It is -30° today. Wait...that's without the windchill added on. Environment Canada has been nice enought to post the following warning:

WIND CHILL WARNING: City of Thunder Bay Issued at 5:05 AM EST THURSDAY 15 JANUARY 2009
EXTREME WIND CHILL VALUES THIS MORNING. THIS IS A WARNING THAT EXTREME WIND CHILL CONDITIONS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.

BITTERLY COLD ARCTIC AIR REMAINS ENTRENCHED OVER NORTHERN ONTARIO. EXTREME WIND CHILL VALUES OF MINUS 40 TO 45 ARE BEING OBSERVED ACROSS THE DISTRICT THIS MORNING. DESPITE WINDS REMAINING IN THE 15 TO 20 KM/H RANGE TODAY..WIND CHILL VALUES WILL MODERATE LATER THIS MORNING AS THE MERCURY RISES. WIND CHILL WARNINGS MAY BE REQUIRED IN SOME REGIONS AGAIN TONIGHT. ENVIRONMENT CANADA WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE SITUATION AND MAKE ADJUSTMENTS AS NECESSARY.

"Bitterly cold"...that is the description. I have some better choice words - none of which should be published here.

Tomorrow it is supposed to improve though; it will be a balmy -20°.

I'm not prepared to leave the warmth of my bed. For a real kick in the balls, its 6° in London (plus not minus).

Trucks for Christmas

I'm not really a big fan of Christmas - its pretty commercialized now, and I refuse to feel the stress of the season. Even so, the one thing that I really enjoy going to is the yearly Truck Parade. I had great intentions of taking pictures of it this year. Unfortunately due to the extremely painful cold, and the fact that our truck died (so I couldn't warm up) I was stuck with this picture of McDonalds (ooooooh) taken through the truck window, and a couple blurry shots of trucks. Even so, the parade was awesome!! But cold.

Winter Wonderland...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Winter has definitely reared its ugly head this year. The temperatures are already far below where I like them (ok, I’ll admit anything under 5 celsius is below what I deem acceptable) and we are definitely having a White Christmas. We have been incredibly spoiled during the past several years; snow has been late in coming, as has the incredibly cold weather – we’ve kind of become desensitized to the realities of living in the north. In the process of being spoiled, I had forgotten just how much I despise the northern winter. I am not a cold weather person. I like snow after it has freshly fallen; when the trees have that beautiful, clean coating, and the world is wonderland. Unfortunately this is short lived, and is generally replaced by brown ugliness. Therefore I could do without snow.
It has also again made me wonder what is worse? A UK winter (dark by 3:30pm, rain, cloudiness, etc) or a Northern Canadian winter (snow, cold, cold, cold). The one advantage to the Canadian winter is that we still receive a fair amount of sun. Thunder Bay also has the great luck of having daylight until 5pm. Hmm…it’s a difficult call. Somehow the answer seems more clearcut when I step out the door and am blasted by cold weather, whereby making it impossible to breath…but still…tough call…