As the polar vortex finally loosens its grip on North America, we
thought it’d be fun to look back on some of its most interesting highlights.
At one point, some
Canadian cities were colder than Mars
According to the NASA, the daily high
temperatures on Mars ranged from -25 to -31C as of December 21st (the latter
being the coldest daily high recorded since the rover landed in Aug. 2012, says
the Ottawa
Sun). Not too bad when you look at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Saskatoon and
even Ottawa:
·
Winnipeg - low of
-37 °C (January 6)
·
Manitoba – low of
-40 °C (January 1)
·
Saskatoon - low
of 36.8 °C (January 6)
·
Ottawa – low of -28.1
°C (January 3)
It broke a low
temperature record in South Central Ontario
Hamilton’s cold temperature record was set at
a blistering -24 °C! According to the CBC, ”For
people scurrying to work across frozen downtown sidewalks, that temperature
felt even colder as frigid winds gusting up to 60 km/h made it feel as cold as
-41 C (the all-time wind chill record is -43 C, set on Jan. 19, 1994).”
At one point, all 50
US states had at least one area reporting below-freezing temperatures
The Telegraph reports
that “all 50 of America’s states recorded temperatures below freezing at some
point on Tuesday [January 7th]“. Even the sunshine state dropped below zero!
Planes in Chicago were
grounded due to frozen jet fuel
It can be tough to keep a flight when it’s
cold enough for jetfuel to freeze. As many
North Americans already know, the 2014 polar vortex caused massive
transportation issues in practically every means of travel. In fact, between
January 3rd and 4th alone, CAA South Central Ontario fielded over 12,000
service calls! Down south in the states, the disruption is said to cost
the US economy a whopping five BILLION dollars.
It had its own hashtag
The National Weather Service created #Chiberia (a combination of Chicago and Siberia) to
collect info about the storm from residents. Pretty smart thinking!
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