Dress warmly, because it’s about to get very cold.
An air mass moving down from the far north will plunge the region into arctic-like temperatures for the next few days.
According to Environment Canada Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Geoff Coulson, the temperature in Ottawa is expected to drop over the next couple of days to below -30 C by Friday.
With the cold air moving in Tuesday night, Coulson said there is potential for a wind chill Wednesday that could push the temperature as low as -35 C.
Daytime highs over the next few days are not expected to get much above -20 C. Normal high temperatures for this time of year are closer to -6 C, with a low of -16 C.
“January tends to be the coldest month, for most locations in the province,” said Coulson.”So it’s not unheard of for us to see these values at this time of year. The days are still relatively short. We don’t have long sun times. The sun is still low in the sky so we’re not getting much impact to bump up these temperatures.”
The cold temperatures will be accompanied by sunny skies with no snow expected until at least the end of the weekend.
The weather is forecast to improve to -10 C by Saturday, with a return to around normal weather by the beginning of next week.
