Brrrrr! Cold day ahead in Cape Breton

Temperatures expected to plummet to -21 C

SYDNEY — The yo-yo cycle of Cape Breton winter weather looks like it’s going to continue for at least the next few days.

An extreme cold warning is in effect for today for all of the island with the mercury expected to drop to -21 C early today, with a bone-chilling feel-like temperature of -35 C when factoring in the northwesterly winds.

Tracey Talbot, meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Monday that cold Arctic air would move into the region overnight making for a chilly early morning commute today.

“First thing in the morning, when the temperatures are really low as well as winds of 40 kilometres per hour gusting to 60 km/h — the combination of those two is going to make it pretty frigid,” she said. Today’s high is forecast to be -14 C with the wind chill making it feel about 20 degrees colder for much of the day. An extreme cold warning is issued when very cold temperatures or wind chills create an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia.

But the bitter cold won’t last long according to Talbot.

“Temperatures are supposed to go up on Wednesday with the next system that’s coming through,” she said. “We have another messy one coming through and it looks like it’ll probably start out as snow and then change over to rain before it finishes.”

In fact, a special weather statement in relation to the low-pressure system has been issued for all of Cape Breton for Wednesday.

When that system moves out the temperature is forecast to drop once again to around -10 C to -12 C for Thursday.

“It seems to be this up and down temperature (trend),” said Talbot.

In addition to Environment Canada meterologists, a team of weather observers at J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport has also been keeping track of the everchanging weather the island has been experiencing this winter. In fact, the weather observers based at the airport provide Environment Canada with some of the most accurate and regularly updated weather data it receives from Cape Breton.

John MacKinnon, who has worked as a weather observer at the airport for the past six years, said data on a long list of weatherrelated factors are recorded and reported each hour, including temperature, wind speed, visibility, precipitation and cloud height.

“We have to send out an hourly weather observation,” he said. “It’s imperative, mandatory, that every hour on the hour one weather report goes out.”

MacKinnon said the airport’s weather data provides crucial, updated weather information for the aviation industry.

“For anybody flying in here, the most updated conditions for this airport are available,” he said.

LAURA JEAN GRANT - CAPE BRETON POST John MacKinnon, a weather observer at the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport, keeps an eye on the weather and the data coming into the station Monday morning. A weather observer is stationed in the airport tower 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

LAURA JEAN GRANT - CAPE BRETON POST This gauge measures the amount of precipitation — snow or rain — that falls at J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport. That data is then sent along to Environment Canada.