With most of the country affected by an extreme cold or winter storm alert—or both—the biggest travel weekend of the year is sure to be an eventful one.
Why it matters: This is the first holiday season during which large parts of the country are not affected by strict Covid restrictions since 2019, but forecasters expect dangerous weather conditions to guarantee another year of disrupted plans for millions of Canadians.
Driving the news: There are freezing temperatures and delayed flights in BC, a potential polar vortex brewing in Alberta, and Ontario and Quebec bracing for what is expected to be a significant storm—is there anything worse-sounding than a blizzard-flash freeze combo?
- Environment Canada posted extreme cold warnings for the bulk of Western Canada, with temperatures in Regina, Saskatchewan falling to what felt like -43 C this week.
- Bad weather spells trouble far beyond delayed travel and power outages. Emergency services struggle to operate, and homeless people become particularly vulnerable.
To anyone that’s made it to their destination already: What’s it like to be so on top of things? And to anyone soon to be on their way: We’re wishing you safe, uneventful travels. We’ll see how this weekend goes, but we might be done with dreaming of white Christmases after it.