'Arctic air mass' means another cold weather alert for Hamilton
Lows of around –20 C expected for Monday and Tuesday, Environment Canada says
Bundle up, Hamilton — another blast of unseasonably cold temperatures is in store for the city.
Environment Canada issued a special weather statement on Sunday, warning of high winds, blowing snow and plunging temperatures for much of southern Ontario.
The agency says a cold front will sweep over the region on Sunday afternoon and into the evening.
“Strong and gusty southwesterly winds are expected to develop this morning ahead of the front,” Environment Canada said in a statement on its website. “The strongest winds are likely near the shores of the Great Lakes, where gusts between 50 and 70 km/h are possible.”
The blowing snow will bring the risk of “a brief period of near-zero” visibility along the cold front, the statement warned.
After the front rolls through, “an arctic air mass will settle in over the region."
For Hamilton, that means lows of around –20 C and a chance of flurries are in the forecast for both Monday and Tuesday.
Wei Zhang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said temperatures in Hamilton are expected to bottom out on Tuesday at –20 C. With the wind chill, it could feel closer to –30 C, she said.
Forecasters don’t expect temperatures in Hamilton will fall as far as they did on Jan. 7, which saw a low of –24 C. Wind gusts of up to 60 km/h made it feel as cold as –41 C in parts of the city that day.
Tuesday’s readings also aren’t expected to break any records; the lowest recorded temperature for Jan. 21 at the Hamilton airport’s weather station, Zhang said, is –24.7 C, reached on that day in 1984.
The city’s medical officer of health issued a cold weather alert late Sunday morning.
In general, one is invoked when temperatures reach, or are expected to drop below, –15 C, or to feel like –20 C with wind chill.
Hamiltonians can look forward to gradual warming in the second half of the week, with lows of –13 C in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.