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December 27, 2021 - 4:12 PM
On June 29, Lytton set an all-time Canadian heat record of 49.6 Celsius as a “heat dome” peaked after triggering record high temperatures throughout the province.
Even Kamloops at 47.3 C and Kelowna at 45.7 C that same day broke the previous Canadian record of 45 C set in the towns of Midale and Yellowgrass, Sask. on July 5, 1937.
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Contrast Lytton’s 49.6 C with its overnight low today, Dec. 27, of –24 C and that shows a temperature range of 73.6 C. But the Arctic front hitting Western Canada right now is nowhere near record breaking so Lytton won’t reach its all-time low that was recorded at -31.7 C on Jan. 18, 1950.
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That gives Lytton a life-time temperature range of 81.3 C.
That’s impressive and is a greater range than cited for the entire United States in a 2018 Chicago Tribune article.
That points to Fort Yukon, Alaska, as ranging from -78 Fahrenheit to 100 F. That 178 F difference translates into 81.1 C, slightly lower than Lytton.
Even so, Lytton doesn’t rate anywhere near to number one in Canada.
That distinction goes to Regina, SK.
It dropped to -50 C on Feb. 1, 1893 and again on Jan. 1, 1885. Its all time high was 43.3 C on July 5, 1957 giving it a temperature range of 93.3 C, according to a 2014 Canadian Geographic article.
As to the global champion, that goes to the Siberian “cold pole” of Verkhoyansk in eastern Russia, according to Guinness World Records.
It had an all-time Arctic high temperature of 38 C on June 20, 2020 that was confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization earlier this month. It recorded -68 C in February 1892 for a temperature range of 106 C.
Lytton’s 49.6 C high temperature lags behind Death Valley National Park’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center that recorded 54.4°C on July 9, 2021, according to Yale Climate Connections.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada was in Snag, Yukon at -63 C on February 3, 1947.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the world was -89.4 C at Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. On Jan. 5, 1974, Vostok Station recorded an all-time high of -14 C, for a temperature range of a mere 75 C.
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