Khaberni - Canada witnessed a historic cold wave after one of its cities recorded -55.7°C, the lowest reading for December since 1975.
Several areas in Canada are experiencing severe cold waves, considered to be the harshest since the 1970s. The weather monitoring station in Braeburn, Yukon Territory, recorded a temperature of -55.7°C on December 23 last year.
This reading is the lowest recorded in Canada during the month of December since 1975, reflecting the severity of the polar wave that hit the country and led to the near total freezing of daily life in several northern areas.
For comparison, this temperature is remarkably close to the average surface temperature on Mars, which is about -60°C, in the absence of an atmosphere that helps retain heat, highlighting the severity of the weather that Braeburn experienced.
This exceptional cold is rare even by global standards, especially in the Western Hemisphere, as the coldest temperature recorded in one of the harshest mountain regions in Argentina, at the southern tip of Antarctica, did not exceed -32.8°C, recorded in 1907.
In the United States, excluding Alaska, the recorded record temperature approached that in Braeburn, where the lowest reading recorded -56.7°C, was recorded at a mountain pass in Montana in 1954.
These extreme waves raise increasing questions about climate change and the severe weather phenomena that different regions of the world have been experiencing in recent years.
