Google Doodle commemorates Canada's coldest recorded temperature
Digital Reporter
Monday, February 3, 2014, 2:11 PM -
Today's Google Doodle has Canadians thinking back to an episode that will do nothing to dispel the notion of our country as the land of the eternal deep freeze.
The fanciful art puts you in mind of a cold night with you snuggled warmly in bed, but click through, and it's actually a shout out to the coldest day ever recorded in Canada, and continental North America.
On February 3, 1947, the small Yukon outpost of Snag was plunged into -63°C weather.
According to this account, the laws of physics do weird things to the air when it's that cold.
With no wind and clear skies, exhaled breath lingered in the air for several minutes, sometimes in long streams. Dogs could be heard barking from kilometres away, and exposed skin froze in less than three minutes.
RELATED: Snag's chilly day is one of the seven coldest temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
Of course, the rest of Canada is almost never THAT cold, but for the most part, our chilly reputation, now backed by Google, is well deserved. Take a look at the top five Canadian cities with the most days below zero degrees:
The search engine giant often looks to us for inspiration for its world-famous doodles. Just last year, they feted influential painter Emily Carr on what would have been her 142nd birthday:
The 140th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police:
Canada Day 2013:
And, on February 4, 2013, the last day of the Canadian Penny.
Most of them are happier lookbacks than a reminder of the time it got so cold the alcohol in the thermometers almost froze.
All images courtesy Google.
