City shivers through record cold

Around 6 a.m. Friday, the temperature dropped to -21 C, a low that broke the previous record of -19.4 C set in 1968

HAMILTONIANS SHIVERED through the coldest Jan. 5 since at least 1960, Environment Canada records show.

But if you can bundle up and grit your teeth until next week, relief is on the horizon.

The city beat the previous daily temperature record of -19.4 C set in 1968 when temperatures dropped to -21 C early Friday morning. A record-shattering encore was expected Friday night, with the mercury forecast to plunge to -24 C.

The deep freeze was expected to continue into Saturday, with forecasts calling for another potentially record-breaking low of -23 C, or just an icy touch below the previous Jan. 6 record of -22.8 C in 2014.

Friday’s record was still several degrees warmer than Hamilton’s all-time low recorded temperatures of -30.6 C on Jan. 25, 1884 and

-30 C at the modern-day monitoring station at the airport on Jan. 16, 2004.

If that’s seems like cold comfort, then look ahead to next week’s forecast.

David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada, said residents can look forward to a “dramatic” spike in temperature that will see the mercury rebound from as low as -23 C early Sunday to a forecast -1 C Monday afternoon.

“For the type of people who want to embrace winter, it has mostly been too cold to do that so far,” he said. “But come next week, you should start to see the kind of temperatures that allow you to enjoy what we have.”

Hamilton’s medical officer of health originally issued a cold weather alert Dec. 25, which is expected to remain in effect until at least Sunday.

The ongoing cold snap is pushing city shelters to the limit, freezing 113and-counting residential water pipes and delaying recycling collection (you can put your blue box out this weekend, if needed.)

City paramedic officials reported being very busy Friday but couldn’t immediately say if there was a comparative spike in cold-related calls like hypothermia, frostbite or slip-and-falls on the ice.

People who want to embrace winter, it has mostly been too cold CLIMATOLOGIST DAVID PHILLIPS