Parts of Canada feel colder than on Mars

On Thursday, the temperature on Mars hit minus-20 degrees Fahrenheit.

That might have felt positively balmy to some Canadians, who are shivering through a frigid cold snap. This week, temperatures across Canada dropped way, way, way below freezing. In Edmonton and Yellowknife, it felt like -40 degrees. Things felt just about as cold in Saskatoon and Regina, near the middle of the country. In Ottawa and Toronto, it felt like minus-20 degrees with the windchill.

For comparison: It’s about 1 degree at Antartica’s Amundsen-Scott weather station. It’s “summer” down there. On Thursday, the Mars Gale Crater reached minus-9.4 degrees, making it feel warmer than Saskatoon, Montreal and Calgary. (At night, NASA’s Curiosity rover recorded lows of minus-112 degrees.)

Oymyakon, Russia, the coldest continually inhabited community in the world, was a mere -20 degrees Thursday.

Canada has seen temperatures this low between Christmas and New Year’s, according to Environment Canada. What is unusual is how long this snap is hanging around. Extreme weather warnings are in effect through the weekend, and a lot of New Year’s Eve festivities have been canceled.

Temperatures haven’t been this low since 1993, Environment Canada meteorologist Alexandre Parent said.

Senior climatologist Dave Phillips told CBC News Network the freezing temperatures will last through the New Year. “This cold air is like molasses: it fills all the nooks and crannies and it sticks there, and it’s hard to get it out,” he said Wednesday.