Canada is starting off the new year in a deep freeze.
Toronto is under its first extreme cold weather alert of 2014 coupled with a wind chill warning, with temperatures on Thursday dropping to -19 C and feeling like -27 C with the wind chill. Environment Canada forecasts the temperature will drop to -20 on Thursday night, with a wind chill of -31.
Temperatures are expected to warm up to -2 C by Saturday and 0 C on Sunday before dipping back into the sub-teens overnight on Monday and Tuesday.
The city has opened up extra shelter beds and is asking residents who spot homeless people at risk from the chill to call 311 for assistance.
#CityofTO advises homeless people to seek shelter. The Extreme Cold Weather Alert continues today. News release: bitly.com/KkCfzz- City of Toronto (@TorontoComms) January 02, 2014
Meanwhile, Environment Canada issued wind chill warnings for much of southern Ontario. Areas affected include Toronto, Barrie, Hamilton, York-Durham to the north and east of the city and Halton-Peel to the west, all under severe wind chill warnings.
Elsewhere, Canadians are shivering away in Fredericton (-29), Winnipeg (-32), Thunder Bay (-38), and Eureka, Nunavut (-44) And Lac Benoit, Quebec is a bone-numbing -46 degrees, or -57 with the windchill.
Quebec is so cold that Hydro-Québec is saying it's expecting to reach peak hydro usage and is advising customers to try to limit appliance and hot water usage and reduce temperatures in their homes by one or two degrees.
Nova Scotians are bracing for a nasty blizzard as a cold snap envelops the Atlantic provinces. The storm will intensify overnight and spread eastward over the province Friday, dumping between 15 and 30 centimetres of snow in most areas. Forecasters say southwestern Nova Scotia and areas along the Atlantic coast will be hit the hardest.
The Fundy coast can expect upwards of 15 centimetres of snow and winds gusting up to 60 kilometres an hour.
Atlantic Canadians are already dealing with bitterly cold temperatures with wind chill warnings in effect in all four provinces. Forecasters say it will feel like -35 C in most areas today, and as cold as -45 C in parts of New Brunswick.
In the U.S., parts of the Northeast were bracing for 30 cm or more of snow after a storm dropped up to a foot of snow on parts of Michigan and 15 cm or more in Illinois, prompting hundreds of flight cancellations Wednesday into and out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
If you're sick of the cold, Calgary is set to reach a balmy 8 on Thursday and Vancouver a rainy 8. With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press
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