Extreme cold warning issued for Edmonton area

Temperatures are forecast to drop close to -30 C in the city of Edmonton by early Friday morning and outlying areas will likely hit the mid -30s C.

Wind shouldn’t be much stronger than 10 to 15 km/h. But, at those temperatures, that's enough wind to push wind chills into the -39 to -45 range C.

As a result, the city and surrounding regions are under an extreme cold warning issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The coldest temperatures will be between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Friday.

Wind chills during that time will be around -40 C in the city and closer to -45 C in outlying areas.

That means frostbite is possible in as little as five to 10 minutes on exposed skin. Keep that in mind as you head off to work or send kids to school in the morning.

It will be dangerously cold for anyone on the streets in our city. If you see anyone in distress, call 911 in an emergency or 211 and press 3 for the City’s Crisis Diversion team (available 24 hours).

Almost all of northern Alberta is also under that same warning (the exception is the Cold Lake/Bonnyville region). Temperatures in many areas will be in the -35 to -40 range.

We’re also looking at a large chunk of central Alberta getting into the -30s overnight.

Wind speeds in northwest Alberta and the Red Deer region should ease later tonight after a windy day Thursday.

But, most areas under the warning can expect wind chill values about 10 to 15 degrees colder than the actual temperature.

For many areas, wind chills will be in the -40s overnight and through the morning hours Friday.

Here’s the full list of areas under the etreme cold warning:

• City of Edmonton-St Albert-Sherwood Park
• Airdrie-Cochrane-Olds-Sundre
• Drayton Valley-Devon-Rimbey-Pigeon Lake
• Fort Chipewyan-Wood Buffalo National Park
• Fort McMurray-Fort MacKay
• Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville-Redwater-Smoky Lake
• Grande Prairie-Beaverlodge-Valleyview
• High Level-Rainbow Lake-Fort Vermilion
• Leduc-Camrose-Wetaskiwin-Tofield
• Peace River-Fairview-High Prairie-Manning
• Red Deer-Ponoka-Innisfail-Stettler
• Rocky Mountain House-Caroline
• Slave Lake
• Spruce Grove-Morinville-Mayerthorpe-Evansburg
• Wabasca-Peerless Lake-Gift Lake-Cadotte Lake
• Westlock-Barrhead-Athabasca
• Whitecourt-Edson-Fox Creek Swan Hills