Classroom lesson · Cold record · 🇨🇦 Canada

How cold can Canada get?

The coldest temperature ever recorded was −63°C in the Yukon

Rolling tundra and mountains in Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon

Photo · Wikimedia Commons · Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon

What is it?

Canada is one of the coldest countries in the world. The coldest temperature ever recorded there was −63°C, measured in a tiny place called Snag in the Yukon. That is colder than the inside of a household freezer, by a lot.

Tell me more

Most home freezers sit at about −18°C. At −63°C, things behave very differently. Hot water thrown from a cup turns to snow before it hits the ground. If you breathe out, you can sometimes hear a soft crackle - the moisture in your breath freezing into tiny crystals in the air.

Even in the warmer parts of Canada, like Toronto and Montreal, winter can be very cold - usually well below freezing. Canadian children walk to school in proper winter coats, snow trousers, hats, mittens and boots. Many schools have a special room called a 'mud room' just for taking off all the snowy gear.

Far in the north, in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, winter is long and dark. The sun barely rises in midwinter. People keep warm with very thick walls in their houses, big stoves, lots of layers, and warm hot drinks.

Canadians have all sorts of inventions for the cold. They invented the snow blower, the snowmobile, the goalie's hockey mask, and electric coats that warm themselves up. Living through cold winters together is a big part of being Canadian.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01What's the coldest weather you've ever been outside in? How did it feel?
  2. 02Why might people who live somewhere very cold invent more cold-weather gadgets than people in warm places?
  3. 03What would you carry to school every day if it was sometimes −30°C outside?
Try this

Classroom activity

Look at the inside of a freezer at school or at home. The label probably says about −18°C. Now imagine a temperature three times colder. As a class, list every piece of clothing you would need to walk to school at that temperature - draw it as one big snow-suited cartoon child on the wall.