CALGARY -- Today and tomorrow should be the markedly-coolest of this stretch. That's the trade we make to see the end in sight!

I wrote out a few adages here: "it's always darkest before the dawn," "nowhere to go but up," et cetera… but at the end of the day, I get it. You're probably sick of the grumble. Maybe your windows are showing their true colours and condensing moisture around the vapour barrier and then that's freezing into a skating rink for ants along the windowsills. No? Just Courtney and I?

I digress.

The polar low re-strengthens closer to us tonight. We will see widespread low temperatures below -30 and, factoring wind, we'll land in the mid minus 40s with wind chill. After a couple days' worth of excess cold, we'll start a slow and steady rise back toward seasonal. We have no major warming mechanisms aligned for us, save for wind from the south by Sunday; even then, I'm not wildly optimistic we'll push to our seasonal high of 0 for a little while.

I have a request for those of you working in home offices or going into work: give a shout-out to your outdoor-worker pals when you can. Buy ‘em a coffee, or toss them some acknowledgement. Crews are working on broken water mains, roadside assistance teams are receiving 14,000 calls per day, city construction projects are continuing, emergency crews get no breaks, farmers and ranchers don't either, and the list goes on and on. Plenty of people require the outdoors for their livelihood, and they deserve our gratitude for the work they do.

Here's the five-day forecast:

Today:

  • Scattered flurries, some sun
  • Daytime high: -26 C
  • Evening: partly cloudy, low -34 C

Thursday:

  • Mainly sunny
  • Daytime high: -27 C
  • Evening: mainly clear, low -33 C

Friday:

  • Partly cloudy
  • Daytime high: -22 C
  • Evening: partly cloudy, low -28 C

Saturday:

  • Partly cloudy
  • Daytime high: -21 C
  • Evening: mainly clear, low -24 C

Sunday:

  • Partly cloudy
  • Daytime high: -14 C
  • Evening: mainly clear, low -14 C

Note that Sunday low = the Sunday high – this is good! That means whatever additive warmth we have from the daytime hours will be sustained overnight.

Some weather photos! The Mpemba effect (throwing boiling water into freezing conditions to immediately turn it to snow) is fun, but how about snow bubbles? Cheryl gave 'em a whirl.

snow bubble, ice bubble, Cheryl, Calgary

And Rosanna got a visit from a furry friend!

Rosanna, deer, Calgary

You can submit your weather photos here, or email me here! Kevin Stanfield