Polar vortex brings extreme cold to region

by Dan Gray

The citizens of Windsor and Essex County are dealing with another round of extreme cold caused by an arctic air mass and the polar vortex.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Earth Observatory describes a polar vortex as winds circulating the artic in a counter-clockwise manner. When it is weak, parts of the vortex break off causing extreme cold to descend into our region.

The polar vortex and the Arctic air it brings with it have dropped the temperatures well below normal. According to Environment Canada normal temperatures for January in Windsor range between -1 C for a high and -8 C as overnight lows. Despite the extreme temperatures caused by the  polar vortex Mark Schuster from Environment Canada said this January hasn’t fallen far from normal so far. He said compared to January months of the ‘70s and even compared to 2009 this one isn’t too bad.

“There has been some really cold weather obviously, specifically earlier in the month but there was also a stretch of about five or six days where we had temperatures several degrees above zero,” said Schuster. “But it seems pretty certain that January as a whole will average to be below normal.”

This cold weather has caused some problems for local homeowners and overtime for utility workers. Enwin employee Steve Corriveau was at a house on Janette Avenue on Jan. 21 to turn the water off.  He said there was a problem in the basement of the house, and he was there to turn the water off so the homeowner could get the proper repairs done.

“All the water mains are starting to freeze up,” said Corriveau. “There was 40 to 50 hours extra overtime last week.”

Dr. Allen Heimann the medical officer of heath for the Windsor and Essex County Health Unit issued a cold weather alert in response to the extreme cold Jan. 21. The advisory was put in place to make people aware that the region would be experiencing this cold through at least Jan. 25. The advisory is meant as a way for the health unit to get the message out about what to do to protect yourself.

“Prepare for cold weather, stay indoors during these cold periods unless you need to go outside and if you do make sure you are properly dressed,” said Heimann.