Flash freeze giving weather whiplash

With temperatures plummeting overnight from Wednesday's record high, only to rise again this weekend, people in the Ottawa-Gatineau area are having to adjust just as quickly as the weather.

Wednesday's mix of water, slush and falling precipitation froze solid overnight with the extreme yo-yoing of temperatures.

In some places, the mercury moved 30 degrees in fewer than 10 hours.

Ottawa hit 15.7 C at 3 p.m., its hottest February temperature on record. Between 4 and 5 p.m. its temperature dropped seven degrees and by midnight it was a full 27 degrees colder than that record.

Several other communities had a second day of heat records before the plunge.

"Certainly in terms of radical changes in temperatures this has got to rank right up there with some of the biggest events we've ever seen in the Ottawa Valley," said Geoff Coulson, a veteran warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

Coulson couldn't say immediately if the wild weather flip-flop of the past 24 hours would itself make its way into the record books, but he confirmed it should be treated as exceptional.

"This is a very abrupt change happening because of the speed of the front and the depth of the cold air behind it," he said.

'It's going to be horrible'

In Gatineau Park on Wednesday, cross-country skier Jason Won was buckling up for a second consecutive day of soft, slushy conditions.

"You know what? I think it's still skiable," Won said.

Jason Won was preparing for an afternoon of cross-country skiing in Gatineau Park, where he expected conditions to be too hard and too fast following the flash freeze. (Stu Mills/CBC)

On Tuesday, he began skiing at the park's southern tip and made his way northward where he said conditions improved.

He predicted the forecast temperature would leave conditions too hard to handle on Thursday.

"It's going to be horrible, it's gonna be like a skating rink," said Won.

A pair of forgotten ski gloves sits on a table at Camp Fortune, in Chelsea, Que. (Stu Mills/CBC)

At the nearby Camp Fortune resort, owner Peter Sudermann was sanguine about the challenging conditions.

"Mother Nature deals us whatever hand she has and we try to make the best of it," he said, noting that the ski hill had taken advantage of recent cold weather to make artificial snow.

Unique challenge for road crews

The weather is also presenting unique challenges for Ottawa's road crews.

"This is definitely an odd one," said Bryden Denyes, a manager of roads services for the city.

He said crews would be selectively salting roads and sidewalks overnight, especially where ponding and runoff were becoming problems.

Denyes said a few hours of a flash freeze can cause months of pothole repair work in the aftermath.

The weird weather is also posing a threat to the maples at Fallowfield Tree Farm.

"It's dangerous for them," said owner Kenny Stuyt.

Kenny Stuyt sqints into a bright sun at Fallowfield Tree Farm, where he worries about the effects of a flash freeze on his young maples. (Stu Mills/CBC)

A few days of spring-like weather can trick the young deciduous trees into sprouting delicate new buds — and six of the last eight days had brought temperatures well above zero.

"They're kind of waking up right now, and then they get hit with the cold weather, which is not good for them," he said.

He hoped that the inconsistent temperatures would keep his stock of trees "sleeping" through the "false spring."

But with yet another temperature turnaround expected, Stuyt and others say it's been hard to know how to prepare.

Based on the latest forecasts, some daily heat records are again in play Saturday, Sunday and Monday.