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EDMONTON — Edmonton's weather boasted two dubious distinctions Sunday: it was colder here than anywhere else in North America and it marked the coldest Dec. 13 in the city's history.
Environment Canada recorded a frigid minus 46.1 C, or minus 58.4 C with the wind chill, at the Edmonton International Airport at 5 a.m., said meteorologist Pierre Lessard.
The old record of minus 36.1 C was set last year.
"To break a temperature by 10 degrees is very exceptional," said Lessard.
The temperature record from Edmonton's city centre was also broken Sunday, said meteorologist John McIntyre.
Environment Canada recorded a temperature of minus 36.5 C downtown at 8 a.m. Sunday, beating the previous record for the day of minus 32.8 C in 1882, McIntyre said.
While Edmontonians may be wishing the weather gods would be a little less ambitious, there was at least one person in the city who could still see beyond the horrifying numbers on the thermometer.
"(Sunday) it was beautiful with the hoar frost on all the trees and the light was really misty," said Pamela Anthony, director of the Winter Light festival, a civic celebration of winter which launched last January and will run again from Jan. 6 to March 13 next year.
"It was almost cinematic. But it is hard to see if you are distracted by discomfort. The cold can be pretty intimidating. This is serious weather. You are a membrane of glass away from disaster and deep down, we all know it."
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Why UN organisers selected Copenhagen for the December summit remains a mystery. They might have had more success in drawing attention to the perils of hot weather if they had chosen Perth, where the temperature is forecast to reach 37 degrees this week, or Canberra where it will be 36.
A central issue at the summit is whether global warming should be limited to 1.5 degrees or 2 degrees. But some delegates are saying that Copenhagen in December might be more pleasant if it was about 15 degrees warmer.
Copenhagen is also being criticised as the summit venue by delegates because it is very expensive.
A cappuccino costs $A5, a beer at least $7, a small hot dog from a street stand $8, and a "cheap", simple lunch dish can easily cost $30.
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Denmark has a maritime climate and milder winters than its Scandinavian neighbors. It hasn’t had a white Christmas for 14 years, under the DMI’s definition, and only had seven last century. Temperatures today fell as low as minus 4 Celsius (25 Fahrenheit).
DMI defines a white Christmas as 90 percent of the country being covered by at least 2 centimeters of snow on the afternoon of Dec. 24.
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