WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Warm and winter are two unlikely companion words that Canadians are using to describe record-breaking temperatures this year.
Winnipeg, a Canadian city dubbed "Winterpeg" for its notoriously frigid winters, had its warmest January on record, Environment Canada said Wednesday. Normally Canada's coldest large city each winter, Winnipeg enjoyed an average -7.4 Celsius (18.7 F) in January, the balmiest since the month's temperatures were first recorded in 1873. This broke the 1944 record of -10.6 C (12.9 F), well above the city's normal monthly mean of -17.8 C (-0.04 F), Environment Canada said.
Monthly temperature records are usually broken by fractions of degrees, said Dale Marciski, an Environment Canada meteorologist in Winnipeg. "This time we're breaking it by over three degrees. That's showing that not only is it record-breaking but its record-breaking by a huge amount," Marciski said.
Communities in Canada's north, which often rely on temporary winter roads built on frozen lakes and rivers for bringing in supplies, have been isolated. Only an estimated 60 percent of Manitoba's winter roads have opened.
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