Think it's cold where you are? Yukon was the coldest place on Earth this week
11 out of 15 coldest places on Earth Friday were in Yukon and Nunavut
January's weather this year has people across the country doing the same thing: bundling up.
Extreme cold, snowfall records and blizzards are among the events that have touched almost all parts of Canada.
The latest deep freeze through Yukon has brought extreme temperatures that were some of the coldest in the world and have persisted for over a week.
Out of the fifteen coldest places on Earth recorded Friday, eleven were in the Canadian territories, according to WXNow, an extreme weather tracking website.
And all but one of these were in the Yukon.
How cold is cold?
On Friday, Carmacks reached a bone-chilling –49.8 C, beating its previous cold record for Jan. 17. Mayo was a close second at –49.4 C.
Other communities in Yukon also continued their stretch of –40 C temperatures: Faro at –46.7 C; Beaver Creek at –44.9 C; and Dawson with –44.4 C — coming in third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Unsurprisingly, most of the locations outside Canada ranked as coldest on Earth were in Alaska, just over the Yukon border.
Cold temperatures letting up
So, what caused the Yukon to be the coldest place on the planet? That pesky high-pressure ridge that has been stuck over the territory for more than a week.
This ridge brought temperatures to Yukon and N.W.T. that were well below normal. Extreme cold warnings were in effect for more than a week in some cases, and wind chills feeling like it was below –55 C.
Now, that ridge is making its way out of the territory and the end is in sight for these cold temperatures as we head into early next week.