Here is a news article about our current weather for all you hot fretters: http://www.nationalpost.com/rss/story.html?id=271864
Weird, when I followed the link in Netscape the header was visible but there was a big space where the text was supposed to be. The code is there for the text though:
As a severe winter storm brought blizzard-like conditions and bone-chilling cold down upon the Prairies, homeowners cranked up the heat, putting record demands on at least one province's power grid, a system operator said Monday.</p>
<p>"We're forecasting there's a good possibility for us to pass the previous record of 9,701 [megawatts per hour] today if the weather continues to be as frigid as it is," Ally Taylor, spokeswoman for the Alberta Electric System Operator, said yesterday.</p>
<p>Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg are all seeing their wind-chill temperatures drop into the range of -30 C and -40 C through the week. By early yesterday morning, Grande Prairie, Alta., had recorded a wind chill of -49 C. Many parts of Alberta, including the Calgary airport, Coronation and Del Bonita, saw wind chills drop to -48 C. Winds there have been measured at 63 km/h.</p>
<p>But there is no need to worry about outages, Ms. Taylor said, and all major generation stations were running smoothly as of Monday.</p>
<p>The coldest temperature recorded in Calgary was -45 C, without the wind chill, back on Feb. 4, 1893.</p><p>Environment Canada meteorologist Dan Kulak said the subzero temperatures should be keeping Calgary in the deep freeze for the next three days, but the weather could improve as early as Thursday with a high of -7.</p>
<p>The Atlantic provinces also were digging out from snow and freezing rain, and B.C. suffered through its own version of wacky weather.</p>
<p>This blast of winter on the Prairies is being attributed to an Arctic ridge of cold air, the Environment Canada Web site said Monday. Some areas of Alberta had as much as 10 centimetres of snow on the weekend, with forecasters predicting at least five more centimetres. </p>
<p>Paul Lapointe, a spokesman for the Calgary emergency management services, said these temperatures were the coldest the city has seen in a long time. His staff was out in full force Monday, making sure the city's homeless took shelter indoors as temperatures plunged to Arctic levels.</p>
<p>"It's strange for us to talk about survival when we're in a city," he said. "But it is about survival, because when you're out there for more than a few minutes, you can get frostbite and risk getting hypothermia." </p>
<p>Mr. Lapointe said people should remember to layer on clothing when heading outdoors and to cover their heads, from which much of the body's heat escapes.</p>
<p>In Edmonton, police forces reported just four collisions causing injuries between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. local time Monday, compared with eight injury collisions in the same time period a week earlier, when the weather was clear.</p>
<p>Early in the day, people seemed to be going easy on their gas pedals or simply staying off the roads altogether, police said.</p><p>But officers still had concerns."People are still doing some of the things that frustrate our officers," said Lisa Lammi, a spokeswoman for the police service's traffic section.</p>
<p>People continued to speed through intersections on red lights, she said. When pulled over, drivers complained icy roads made it impossible for them to stop.</p>
<p>A wind-chill warning has also been issued for Edmonton as temperatures plummet to -46 C. Edmonton buses were running late because of blowing snow, and the driving condition of all major roads leaving Edmonton was poor, according to the the Alberta Motor Association.</p>
<p>Airports in both Calgary and Edmonton, however, were reporting only minor delays.Edmonton International Airport spokesman Jim Rudolph said things were running smoothly, but he recommended people check the airport website and with their airlines to keep abreast of delays or cancellations.</p>
<p>It was much the same story in Winnipeg, where a winter storm watch and blizzard warning were issued, with a bigger blast expected to come Monday night. Wind-chill temperatures there dropped to -27 C by midday and were expected to bottom out at -45 C by Wednesday. </p>
<p>Brian Bechtel, director of a Winnipeg emergency shelter called the Main Street Project, said they increased the number of spaces from 55 to 65 because of the anticipated sub-zero conditions.</p>
<p>"When we had the colder weather in January, it was obvious that we had to turn people away, so we went to the drawing board and said, surely there's someplace here in the building we can shoehorn in a few more folks," he said. </p>
<p>Winds were expected to reach speeds of up to 70 km/h in Winnipeg, with parts of central Manitoba bracing for more snow after 10 centimetres fell on some areas overnight.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, two separate bands of snow and gusting wind have come and gone in Saskatchewan, with much of the province heading into a deep freeze. "We may get the odd flurry, but it has passed through for the most part,"said Saskatoon-based meteorologist Bob Cormier.</p><p>Saskatonians will endure a -48 C wind chill on Tuesday, where the temperature will remain for the remainder of the week.</p><p>But by midday Monday, RCMP in Saskatchewan had not had a single accident reported anywhere outside the urban centres, said Sgt. Tammy Patterson. Like many drivers, some RCMP detachments were keeping their officers off the roads, as well.</p>
<p>"We're not going out there if we don't have to; we're not putting our members at risk," Sgt. Patterson said.</p><p>As the Prairies continue to deal with the subzero temperatures, people living in Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton, and Newfoundland, were hearing severe weather warnings, too.</p>
<p>Areas of Nova Scotia, including Halifax and the counties of Digby, Kings and Cumberland, were expected to be hit with as much as 15 centimetres of snow, as well as prolonged periods of freezing rain and ice pellets. </p>
<p>Environment Canada meteorologist Bob Robichaud said Monday the winter has been particularly nasty to the Atlantic provinces. </p>
<p>"We've had more snow than the average snowfall up to this point in the winter, but the frequency of storms transiting through is definitely above normal," he said. </p><p>Some schools were closed Monday due to a storm that wasn't expected to subside until Tuesday. </p>
<p>Classes at all south-shore schools in Aspotogan, Chester District, Hebbville, and West Northfield were cancelled. </p>
<p>High wind warnings were also issued for all four Atlantic provinces, Robichaud said. </p>
<p>Gusts of up to 90 km/h were expected to blow through the areas of Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. </p>
<p>Nova Scotia Power spokeswoman Margaret Murphy said that, as of Monday morning, there were no reported outages in the province. She said power lines are most affected during strong windstorms when trees topple onto them, cutting power. </p>
<p>Mr. Robichaud said the bad news is that winter is still far from over for the Atlantic provinces. </p>
<p>"In the next few weeks, there's a series of storms going through," he said. "It's going to be a busy couple of weeks." </p>
<p>The blast of wintery weather hitting the East Coast is unrelated to the wacky weather conditions B.C. experienced over the weekend. </p>
<p>Some areas of Vancouver enjoyed spring-like, sunny conditions Sunday -- in stark contrast to outlying areas such as Burnaby, New Westminister and Delta, which got more than 20 centimetres of snow. </p>
<p>Near-whiteout conditions in these areas caused many accidents on highways in Burnaby and New Westminister. Some transit buses going up mountains in Burnaby needed to be recovered by crews after slipping and sliding due to the icy road conditions. </p>
<p>The conditions were attributed to an unstable air mass that blasted some areas with snow, while others experienced springtime weather.
Yuck, good luck to you northerners. I took a shower here at the office this morning. Still barefoot. :D