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Cold snap continues

Temperatures began to fall mid-December
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It’s not that it’s been cold in the area — it has been and then some — but it’s the length of time that it’s been cold that has made this winter stand out so far.

Temperatures last week of -33 C or even -44 C at night thanks to the wind chill have happened before.

Environment Canada, for example, puts the coldest temperature of any Dec. 28 from 1942 to 2017 as -41 C in 1996. That’s quite a contrast to the warmest Dec. 28 over the same time span as being in 2011 when it was 3.3 C.

When it comes to length of time, it was mid-December of last year as to when minimum and maximums began to stray beyond the averages for that month of -5 C for a daily high and -13 C for a daily low.

Daily highs remained in the -15 C range for nine straight days before falling into -22 C territory.

And daily lows in the -20 C range dipped to the low -30 C range.

Daily highs and daily lows this week have changed just slightly.

Meanwhile, the Houston Volunteer Fire Department is advising people with furnaces to regularly check their exhaust vents.

That comes courtesy of a Facebook post from the Warman, Saskatchewan fire department and re-posted on the Houston fire department’s Facebook page.

“A plugged vent could cause your furnace to shut down with the modern day fail safes or worse case scenario cause a build-up of highly toxic carbon monoxide in your home if those fail safes do not work or if you have a older furnace,” the post reads.

It also advises people to install carbon monoxide detectors in their homes.

“Something so simple could save lives,” the post states.