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It was really, really, really cold in Sudbury yesterday, but still not the coldest day ever

That record goes to Jan. 10, 1982, when it was -39.3 C
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(File)

It's official — yesterday's temperature was record-breaking in Greater Sudbury. After a weekend that was also very cold, the temperature got down to a teeth-chattering -37.1 C at the Sudbury Airport on Jan. 28, 2019.

The previous record for the coldest Jan. 28 in Sudbury was set back in 1925, when the temperature got down to -35.6 C.

We also looked into the coldest day ever on record in the city. It turns out the mercury would have had to plunge a few more degrees yesterday before that record was shattered (as if -37.1 C wasn't cold enough!).

According to Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Peter Kimbell, the coldest day ever on record in Sudbury was Jan. 10, 1982, when the temperature fell to -39.3 C. 

Our neighbouring city to the north, Timmins, actually got close to that temperature yesterday, with a low of -39.1 C.

“We had a cold air mass that basically flooded down from northern Canada from the Arctic, across Hudson Bay, Northern Ontario, and into southern Ontario, and produced these extremely cold temperatures,” Kimbell said.

When we look at the average temperature for January 2019 so far, the weather isn't that out of the ordinary.

The average temperature for January in Sudbury is -13 C. But so far this month, the average temperature has been -15.1 C. Earlier this month, there was a lot of yo-yoing between cold and warm temperatures.

“You balance the two out, and you get a month that's not too far away from normal,” Kimbell said.

Temperatures will stay pretty cold in Greater Sudbury until the weekend, when the high will be -10 C on Saturday and -3 C on Sunday, with periods of snow both days.
 


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