What will this cold snap mean for our bugs?
CBC
The Prairies Climate Change Project is a joint initiative between CBC Edmonton and CBC Saskatchewan that focuses on weather and our changing climate. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga brings her expert voice to the conversation to help explain weather phenomena and climate change and how they impact everyday life.
The last few weeks have felt like an early welcome to spring. Thawing temperatures began to eat away at the snowpack in Alberta during the first few weeks of February.
But this winter has another trick up its sleeve. A deep freeze moving into the province this week will drive the mercury down to the minus 20s or even minus 30s.
"The cold air is very close now and we're going to see temperatures well below normal to finish this month," said Kyle Fougere, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
While many of us can reach back into the closet for our parkas, plants and animals are not quite as lucky. What will this late and abrupt cold snap mean for insects that are weathering the winter?
During the winter, some insects will burrow deep into the ground, waiting for warmer weather. Some remain awake.
"Our wolf spiders, springtails — a bunch of different things are actually active under the snow and we just can't see them," said Peter Heule, live animal supervisor at the Royal Alberta Museum.
Invertebrates survive by producing a kind of antifreeze or a cryoprotectant in their bodies.
"Antifreeze is going to mean that your body tissues will remain liquid even when we're below zero. And then the cryoprotectants basically allow ice crystals to form in your body, but not in places where they're going to cause damage," he said.
Even with those adaptations, insects also need a layer of insulation, seeking refuge just under the snow or leaf litter of a yard.
We know that bugs are impacted by cycles of thawing and sudden deep freezes. And there has been no shortage of either this winter, with temperatures that spent very little time around the "normal" mark.
A warm autumn hit a U-turn in December with a deep freeze pulling temperatures into the minus 30s.
"It was actually very cold in December for Alberta and especially those first three weeks," said Fougere.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.