OLDS - The extreme cold warning issued by Environment Canada last Wednesday has been lifted Tuesday for much of the province.
As of yesterday's early afternoon update, the Airdrie - Cochrane - Olds – Sundre area was no longer under the warning but the Red Deer - Ponoka - Innisfail – Stettler area was.
By this morning, the extreme cold warning had been lifted for all of southern and central Alberta as well as parts of northern Alberta.
The warning is issued when the temperature or wind chill is expected to reach -40 C for at least two hours.
Meanwhile, snowfall warnings are now in place for many locations in the southern part of the province.
The impacts of the recent, record-breaking cold temperatures have lessened as Chinook's Edge School Division schools reopen Tuesday, postponed events are rescheduled and the electricity grid rebounds.
Starting today, forecasts call for highs in the single digits again, albeit still below freezing.
On Monday, all 42 schools in Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) were closed again after being closed the previous Friday due to the cold weather -- including in Sundre where temperatures hit record lows Friday, Jan. 12 as well as Saturday, Jan. 11.
CESD buses were cancelled last Thursday but schools remained open.
Demand for electricity in Alberta hit a new hourly peak of 12,384 megawatts on that Thursday, as extreme cold weather blanketed the province, noted the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).
Later Friday, high power demand due to extreme cold, two large natural gas generator outages, and very low renewable power on the system prompted AESO to issue the first of several grid alerts, then rescind them over the weekend.
AESO issues a grid alert when the power system is under stress and it’s preparing to use emergency reserves to meet demand and maintain system reliability.
Consumers are asked to reduce their electricity use during grid alerts to help mitigate the possibility of undertaking more serious emergency measures to balance the system, including rotating power outages.
On Saturday night just before 7 p.m., an emergency alert was issued across the province asking Albertans to reduce their power consumption to prevent potential rotating power outages throughout the evening.
In just over two hours, the alert had ended. Another grid alert was issued Sunday and again on Monday.
While the region sustained extreme cold temperatures over the weekend, temperatures at the Sundre Airport broke records, according to Environment Canada.
The Sundre area recorded a new, record-low temperature for Jan. 13.
The temperature dropped to -44.5 C Saturday at the Sundre Airport. The previous record for the day of -41.7 C was set in 2005.
The day previous, Jan. 12, temperatures in the Sundre area also broke records.
According to the federal agency, temperatures at the Sundre Airport hit a low of -44.8 C Friday.
That’s a new record for the date, the agency noted, since records in the area started being kept in 1993. The old record of -40.3 C was set in 1998.
Many weekend events were cancelled including two Mountainview Colts hockey games in Didsbury, an Innisfail Eagles hockey game and a polo tournament in Innisfail.
