North

Yellowknife is alarmingly cold, literally

An alarm at the BMO bank triggered by the cold has been ringing non-stop for the past few days. An employee at the bank said it's an annual problem and there's nothing they can do about it locally.

An alarm at the Bank of Montreal bank is triggered when temperatures dip below -30 C

The Bank of Montreal in Yellowknife on Jan. 2, 2022. An alarm at the bank gets triggered when temperatures dip to around –30 C. (Luke Carroll/CBC)

Yellowknife's frigid temperatures the past few weeks triggered an alarm that could be heard in the uptown area of the city.

The source was the Bank of Montreal (BMO) near Old Airport Rd., which has an alarm that goes off when temperatures dip below a certain level, said a bank employee. 

The employee said it usually turns on when it hits around –30 C, and won't turn off again until it warms up.

Jeff Roman, the director of communications for BMO, said Friday afternoon the alarm had turned off. 

"We are looking into the matter and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused," he said.

Roman did not elaborate further on what causes the alarm to trip or why it can't be shut off.

Additionally, no one at the BMO branch in Yellowknife was able to answer these questions.

The Yellowknife employee also apologized and said there is nothing they could do locally when it is triggered.