Three weather records were broken by the extreme cold in Grande Prairie Wednesday. According to Environment Canada, the windchill reached minus 50, far surpassing the previous minimum windchill record for December 21st of minus 45 from 1989.
The temperature reached a high of just minus 34.8 degrees, much cooler than the previous minimum high record for the day of minus 27.7 degrees set in 2008. The minimum dew point was minus 45.1 degrees, just lower than the former record from 1990 of minus 44.4 degrees.
It got as cold as minus 41.6 degrees at the Grande Prairie Airport Wednesday, but that wasn’t enough to set a new record low for the 21st. That stands at minus 43.3 degrees also set in 1990. However, it appears that record for December 22nd has unofficially been broken, with the temperature reaching minus 42.5 Thursday morning and the current record at minus 38.9 degrees set in 1964.
An extreme cold warning remains in effect for the region.