Too cold to ski: Bone-chilling cold warnings sweep the country, lows nearing -50 C

WINNIPEG – A baleful front of face-freezing Arctic air delivered a winter wallop across Canada’s midsection Friday, making it too cold to ski in parts of Manitoba and, in Toronto, perhaps too chilly to party.

The Windsor Park Nordic Centre in Winnipeg advised cross-country skiers that its trails would be closed through the weekend. 

“It’s extremely cold and we don’t expect a lot of people to be out skiing,” said Karin McSherry, executive director of the Cross-Country Ski Association of Manitoba, which oversees the centre. 

“It just doesn’t make sense to staff the facility for the next few days while this extreme cold has descended upon us.”

The centre is scheduled to stay open for clubs doing programming but will remain closed to the public. 

McSherry said it’s not unusual for the centre to close early or for the day due to weather, but shutting down for an entire weekend is unusual.

“At the end of the day, it does come down to safety,” she said. 

From New Brunswick through to Alberta, residents were hunkering down to wait out the bone-chilling cold snap, with some regions expected to reach lows of -50 C with the wind chill.

Environment Canada issued orange weather alerts for all of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as most of northern Ontario, warning that severe conditions were likely to cause significant damage, disruption or affect health.

In Regina and parts of Manitoba, officials closed schools and cancelled buses and field trips.

In Toronto, extra outreach teams were dispatched to encourage people to seek shelter indoors. City resident Alejandro Flores said he hopes the winter storm doesn’t blow out the candles on a planned birthday party.  

“I don’t know if we’re going to have to cancel or not,” said Flores.  “Luckily my friends live around the area, so that way they hopefully can attend.

“We have our expecting 20 people, but let’s see what happens.”

In Montreal, police, firefighters and community groups scrambled to check on those who are unhoused and help them as needed.

Once the weekend hits, all of New Brunswick is expected to see temperatures between -30 C and -37 C, with the coldest temperatures expected in the northwestern part of the province.

Meteorologist Danielle Desjardins, with Environment Canada, said the wintry misery is due to “bitterly cold Arctic air” from a cold front that’s wide and being driven by a ridge of high pressure.

“Sometimes we’ll get Arctic air masses that it kind of warms up a little bit during the day and we get a little bit of reprieve, but this ridge of high pressure is quite strong and it is quite large,” she said.

Desjardins said eye-popping, eyelash-freezing records are set or on their way to being set in numerous locations.

In Uranium City, Sask., the temperature was -38 C Friday morning.

On Thursday, three communities in Saskatchewan broke cold records when Assiniboia dropped to -36 C, breaking a 60-year-old record; Lucky Lake to -36.5 C and Rockglen to -34.3 C.

“There’s just a heck of a lot of cold air that’s come down and is sticking around for several days in more or less the same area,” said Desjardins. 

The good news? She said the cold is expected to begin letting up Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2026.