© JONATHAN HAYWARD/THE CANADIAN PRESSPeople use the street to slide down following a major snow storm in Burnaby, B.C., on Jan. 15, 2020. Vancouver and the lower mainland have been pounded with heavy snow fall and freezing temperatures.
Parts of British Columbia were in the grip of rare and extreme cold weather on Wednesday, resulting in school and daycare closures in Vancouver and throwing traffic into chaos, with residents in the Canadian western province advised against traveling.
Cold weather has spread across western Canada this week. In Edmonton, the capital of the province of Alberta, temperatures dropped to -36 Celsius (-33 Fahrenheit) as of Wednesday morning, according to Environment Canada.
The coldest spot in British Columbia was Puntzi Mountain, which recorded its lowest ever temperature of -48.2 Celsius (-55 Fahrenheit) at 8 a.m local time.
British Columbia normally enjoys relatively temperate weather through the year, and the city of Vancouver is better known for its rain than the snowy winters that define the rest of Canada. The temperature in Vancouver on Wednesday morning was -6 Celsius (21 Fahrenheit), according to Environment Canada.
Comment: Microbursts have been in the news a lot lately: