Calgary’s coldest days are traditionally between Jan. 9 and Jan. 16. On average, conditions bottom-out in Winnipeg between Jan. 10 and Jan. 16. Vancouver is the outlier among western cities, usually experiencing the season’s coldest temperatures between Christmas Day and Jan. 5.
The season’s coldest air arrives a little later down south, with Toronto registering its lowest daily average temperatures between Jan. 20 and Jan. 28. Give or take a few days, it’s a similar story up the road in Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City.
Cold air takes a little longer to filter toward the East Coast, where Charlottetown and Halifax see their coldest periods of the year during the end of January into the opening days of February. Folks in St. John’s usually see the bottom of their temperature curve during the second week of February.
Weather doesn’t always follow history
Even though history tells us the coldest stretch of the year occurs between late January and early February, that’s not always the case every year.
The coldest day recorded in the City of Toronto saw a low temperature of -32.8°C on Jan. 10, 1859. Calgary Airport’s all-time low temperature was a frigid -36.1°C reading on Feb. 15, 1943.
Along the East Coast, the airport in Halifax saw its coldest-ever reading on Dec. 31, 1993, when the temperature plunged down to -28.5°C.
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