Winnipeg cold grounds flights into the city

Wednesday, January 1, 2014, 12:29 PM -

Winnipeg welcomed a winter blast of cold air as temperatures felt like the -30s on Tuesday night. 

The cold did more than just force residents to bundle up. United Airlines was forced to cancel several of its flight citing the "unique combination of extreme low temperatures and ice crystals that would exceed the safe operating guidelines" of their aircraft. 

The airline called off nine flights on Monday and another three on Tuesday because of the cold weather. 

The temperature didn't warm up from the -30s until Wednesday morning when it hit -29 C. The windchill made it feel like -40 or -50 throughout Tuesday. Temperatures that low can be very harmful to any skin left exposed for a while. 

The temperature on New Year's Eve was the coldest it's been that day in more than 50 years. Organizations like The Downtown Biz were out in the street trying to find homeless people and help them move into shelter to avoid the extremely low temperatures.