A blast of Arctic air by Kirsty McCabe
It has been very cold across Canada and the northern states of America recently and that was certainly the case on Sunday morning.
In Uranium City in Saskatchewan the overnight temperatures dropped to -45.1 C. It was a good job they used an alcohol rather than a mercury thermometer to record this, as mercury freezes at -39 C. In Bismarck, North Dakota, it was only slight less cold at -31.1 C. The average minimum temperatures in January at these locations are -32 C and -18C respectively.
In western New York, cold Arctic air moving south across the lower Great Lakes is bringing “lake-effect snow” that the National Weather Service says could pile up more than a foot deep by Tuesday morning.
Lake-effect snow is caused by the cold air picking up moisture as it moves over the Lakes, depositing it as snow inland.
The wind is blowing multiple bands of lake-effect snow off Lake Ontario west of Rochester and the lake-effect snow off Lake Erie is expected to be heaviest in southern Erie, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties.
Here in the UK, we’re about to get our own blast of cold Arctic air that originated in Greenland. The strong northwesterly flow will knock down temperatures across the UK over the next couple of days, and will bring frequent and heavy snow showers to northern parts.
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