Give that man a cigar, 8:00am on January 16th -37.3C to be exact. http://climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.c...Month=1&Day=16

How you doing down there?

Have they won you over yet?

Yes its cold but you dress accordingly, the good thing is that when it "warms up" to -15C in spring before the thaw it feels positively balmy!!

I have been BBQing in February as it felt warmer!! LOL- its a drier cold here, not damp like it is in the UK.

Its the wind that kills you- its like the Yorkshire Wind- goes straight through you not around you !!

At the same time, same day etc, the weather station closest to downtown Ottawa was registering -28.3 c, 9 c difference....quite significant. The Gatineau station is at the airport and often gets calm conditions in the winter, which increases radiational cooling which creates a micro climate of cool that is not always uniform across the greater Ottawa/Gatineau area.

I've driven past Gatineau Airport at night and it does seem to be in a cold zone (frost hollow) and is often quite a bit cooler from other areas of Gatineau.

Last Wednesday was -39C with the windchill. Kind of chilly, when the buses are on strike for the umpteenth week, you don't have a car, and you work a 40 minute walk from home.

And Winterlude is fun. Great ice and snow sculpture exhibits, and fun skating on the Canal (and look at the other skaters and play 'Spot the immigrant' ).

We visited Ottawa in February 2003 on our first ever trip to Canada.

We loved winterlude.
It was minus 20 something on the day we went, but sunny and bright.
We skated on the Rideau canal, marvelled at the wonderfully inticate ice sculptures, ate beaver tales and drank hot chocolate.

Loved it.

It's a dry cold of course

Oh, they are trying.........

Fortunately, I'd anticipated the likely hot issues and, if I may brag, I was spot on. Plus, I had the bonus of being here at the same time as a delegation from Japan. They're here to argue about the one thing the company won't talk to me about. I can hold my liquor far better than most people and I just waited Bingo.

Other than that, this place is bloody wonderful. I've never seen such beautiful scenery. There have been quite a few firsts for me in the last 24 hours. First time in Brazil (first time in the southern hemisphere, now I think of it); first time on a corporate jet (holy shit!); first time I've seen toucans in the wild. I could go on. I was at first a little uneasy when I was told I was staying in the company "guest house". It's just as well I didn't bring my camera with me. Souvette would kill me if she saw shots of this place.

Off to bed now. It's well after midnight and I'm up at six to come back to the cold. Bugger.

But how's the poutine?

What no pictures?

I'm devastated.

Sorry. I do have some pics of me planting a tree. Quite why they wanted me to plant a tree is beyond me.

Not that cold really - I used to live in NW Ontario where temps dipped into the -30s for days on end, but was v dry, so the cold was only skin deep. I find Ottawa a bit chillier as it's damp in comparison, although nowhere near as damp as the UK! There's a lot more snow here in Ottawa than up north, so I seem to spend a lot of time shovelling! MInd you, after last winter's snow fall of just short of 14ft, this winter's been a breeze so far, lol!

Winterlude is good - the ice sculptures are pretty amazing! http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/bins...8-22877&lang=1

Haven't been out on the canal yet this winter .... still trying to talk Wannabe into it, am afraid she was mentally scarred after last year's experience, lol!!!

Perhaps to record the first event of a pseudo Canadian planting a tree rather than cutting one down with a chainsaw or other petrol powered implement?

Just doing my bit for the environment, unlike this morning. One plane, 450 miles and four passengers. Very green, that.