Low to date - Dec.16-08
overnight (sunrise) temp 16.9°F (-8.3°C)
Lantzville 325' elev. zone 8b

Closest reporting weather station for Environment Canada,
Nanaimo airport - 25 miles south of Lantzville.
Low to date - Dec.15-08 ~ -15°C (5°F)

Cheers, Barrie.

Up to date - Dec. 17th/08
lowest overnight temp ~ -11 C
Bedford (Halifax), Nova Scotia
Zone 6a/6b

This winter has been fairly inconsistent. A big snowfall early on, but since then we have had temperatures in the mid teens, even yesterday it was around 7 or 8.

Cameron.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada: -30.6 C

So far, 4B.

(Recorded at YYC-always at least a couple of degrees colder than, especially, the western part of the city)

For interest sake: Denver, Colorado's (a very similar climate to Calgary's-except the Chinooks are warmer, summer heat more intense and arctic fronts not quite as bitter) climate supports Yucca Rostrata (see Denver Botanical Gardens).

This season's low in Denver is -22.2 C.

But don't get me started on zones :lol:, they really don't tell you much. Absolute lows are only a piece of the hardiness puzzle...but it's still fun for bragging rights and such. As far as palms are concerned though, much below zone 7, you're dealing with fairly serious winter protection.

Brrr

You guys come from REAL North.

Here in Paris, we only had -3°C this month, but usually we will take sooner or later around -10°c

Zone 5 in North Central Kansas,
-5F / -20C on 12/17/08
(the coldest so far, the really cold stuff usually arrives in January 😀

Steve

Simferopol', area of 7b-8a. It was minimum -1 С (33 F) and without snow.

Z 8b/9a SW France
Low to date:-1°C/30°F in November, 0°C/32F in December. No snow so far.
Expected average winter low: -4°C/25°F to -5°C/23°F
Average extreme low, 22 years period, around -6°C/21°F
Extreme low 1986-2008: -8°C/17,6°F
20th century historical low: not known, probably -12°C/10.4°F to -13°C/8.6°F

I've done a little homework on Calgary's average yearly low, and I can safely declare that we're not zone 3A as the USDA map suggests.

People from Alberta might find this interesting (but probably not :wink:).

Here's the lowest temps. from the last 8 years (Celsius), taken at the relatively cold airport (YYC):

2001: -26.8
2002: -33.1
2003: -32.3
2004: -33.8
2005: -35.0
2006: -30.1
2007: -26.1
2008: -33.3 (believe it or not set in January, not during this most recent blast which has spawned -31)

Average low= -31.3 = USDA zone 4B

I think this is a sufficient data set to safely declare Calgary zone 4A (but maybe even 4B). I hear you guys talking about the zone map being wrong, but I always though it seemed about right for Calgary. The numbers seem to defy this. Perhaps almost a decade is still not enough winters though, especially in light of what this winter appears it could deliver!

Edmonton, by the way, came in slightly warmer at -31.08. Of course, these zones don't tell you anything about the duration of cold and heat.

Thanks for listening...I'm done now.

New low ... 13°F (-10.6°C) ~ overnight / early morning of Dec 19 / 20, 2008 😥

Cheers. Barrie.

This forum, pro meteorologists from Texas, contains frequent references to Canada's cold.
It's a long read, so maybe skip to page 112 and go backward...(thread started in November)!

http://www.khou.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33496&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=0183fc4a89541d5d889e8f207ff84a09

These guys mentioned a phenomenon called Omega Block originating in Siberia...apparently it's bringing a "winter like 1989".

Barb

Barb reading that forum these guys are actually hoping for a cold front!!! Maybe they could come for a visit for a month I have a shovel waiting for them! The lowest temperature here South Kelowna -21c zone 6 ,15 miles from the frozen Kelowna airport -28c. This is the coldest winter so far in ten years and it just officially started today. No telling what to expect the rest of the way.

John

John,
Those guys are in Texas and actually look forward to a rare snowfall!
It's their references to where the weather systems originate that I found interesting.
One fellow posted "Poor BC".

We're only 35 miles north of you, and we hit -26.8C -16.2F.

Even my NEW ($$$) windows have ice around the "thermal break".
So much for EnergyStar ratings.
But anything's an improvement over the 31 year old aluminum windows that they replaced.

Barb

You guys keep the cold weather, okay?
As for us, it is officially an 'extreme cold weather alert' here in Toronto. I think they must say that whenever the temperature gets below -10C... It's currently -9C, but we did hit -15C, downtown, a few nights ago (quite unexpected actually, as the low was -12). That sort of thing easily happens after a snow storm when the sky is clear though!

Even though the BC coast had all that snow, I would still like to live there 😀 Don't worry because we got hit by 3 storms in a row that all of them dropped 10-15 cm of snow and now we have 48 cm in our yard. Your snow will not last long.

Our coldest temperatures were -19C so around a 6b-7a. Right now it's -15C with -27C windchills.

I hope we all do not have a extreme winter like last year.