Toronto hits winter’s lowest temperature – so far

BYLINE: Teri Pecoskie

NEWSPAPER: The Toronto Star (website)

DATE: January 30, 2010

Toronto was hit with the coldest temperatures yet this winter when the mercury dipped to a chilly minus 19C early Saturday morning.

AccuWeather meteorologist, Mike Pigott, said Saturday morning’s freezing temperatures were brought on by an Arctic front moving eastward across the province.

“That front is creating some busy weather for the Mid-Atlantic US. It’s interacting with a storm and that’s brought quite a bit of snow to the Virginia and D.C. areas,” he said. “The cold arctic air is behind that front and that’s what we’re feeling now.”

Toronto isn’t the only area that is experiencing frigid temperatures. North of the city, Muskoka was sitting at minus 33C by 5 a.m. Saturday.

Linda Belanger, a representative from CAA, said her phone hasn’t stopped ringing since she arrived at work at 8:30 yesterday morning.

Though she couldn’t confirm the number of calls that have come in Saturday, she said CAA has been much busier than usual.

“There’s been many people with battery problems out there today,” she said.

But thankfully, says Pigott, the brisk weather isn’t expected to last.

“Temperatures everywhere across Ontario and Eastern Canada will be moderating over the next few days,” he said.

According to Environment Canada, Toronto residents can expect temperatures to dip to about minus 15C overnight, but those could warm up to minus 3C Sunday.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in the GTA on this date was minus 26.1C in 1948.

Today, a group of hearty cyclists took part in Toronto’s “Coldest Day of the Year Ride”.

It was led by Councillor Adrian Heaps, chair of the city’s cycling committee.

They rode their bikes on the Martin Goodman Trail to demonstrate the benefits of biking in winter on a day when the city is under an extreme cold weather alert.

Heaps says cycling is really a year-round activity in Toronto, with 72 per cent of people who own cars in the city either having access to a bicycle or riding one each year.

He says while the Coldest Day of the Year Ride is more of a symbolic gesture, it shows that you can ride all year round in the city.

Temperatures had hit a high of -9 degrees by midafternoon Saturday.