It's official: The weekend saw the first snowfall warning of the season
Photo: Daniel Kulugutuk/Twitter
Monday, August 19, 2013, 4:14 PM -
Folks, there's good news and bad news.
Bad news: Winter officially started in Canada this past weekend, with the first snowfall warning of the season issued on Saturday.
Good news (well, for most of our readers): It was in the Arctic community of Grise Fiord, on the south shore of Nunavut's Ellesmere Island.
Winter has hit Grise Fiord early this year. This this morning. pic.twitter.com/g2PMVmsrsS
— Daniel Kulugutuk (@dkulugutuk) August 18, 2013
Environment Canada was warning the 140-odd residents of this community, Canada's most northern civilian settlement, to brace for up to 25 cm of snow, although there is currently no data on how much actually fell.
The Weather Network's Mark Robinson and George Kourounis are in the Arctic on a 22-day tour. You can track their progress here, and read about the first conquerors of this remote region here.
The unwelcome snowfall did NOT venture south into the rest of Canada, though.
In fact, Canada's national hot spot was Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, which hit 31.9 degrees, tying a 2003 record and narrowly edging out Osoyoos, B.C.(31.4C), Medicine Hat, Alberta (30.8C) and Bow Island, Alberta (30.4C).
Most of Canada saw temperatures in the low-to-high 20s this past weekend, although some did feel a places did feel a chill.
Aside from Canada's northern territories, some of Ontario's Hudson Bay communities only managed to creep up a little past 10C -- even as the province's southern cities were nice and toasty.
And while summer has been a little cooler than people in many parts of Canada would like, it's still got some heat left, as meteorologist Dayna Vettese explains.
