The extended extreme cold snap won't start to moderate before Sunday.
Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson says the stretch of temperatures well below normal and dangerous wind chills that began over Christmas is the longest in decades.
"When I look back at the record books for the last number of decades, I could find events close to it in the early eighties, the winter 1979 winter of 1982," says Coulson. "In terms of consecutive cold, if we say minus five or so as the criteria, we really haven't seen the like in a number of decades."
Coulson says this morning's low at Chris Hadfield Airport of -18.8 C was just shy of the record of -18.9 C set in 1999.
An extreme cold warning remains in effect with wind chills nearing -35 C (-31 F) continuing through Saturday.
Sarnia Emergency Department Director Dr. Renato Pasqualucci says there's been a spike in ER visits in the bitter cold.
"We've seen a number of car accidents related to the icy roads, we haven't seen anybody that I'm aware of, that suffered severe frostbite that's lost any limbs," says Pasqualucci. "We have seen a lot of the cold-related injuries where people get really cold toes called frostnip and other injuries that cause repeated chronic injury to fingers, toes and faces."
Lambton Public Health's cold weather alert remains in effect.
The snow squall warning continues for north and east Lambton County.
Geoff Coulson expects the squalls will continue Friday, but gradually shift further east toward London and continue for a good part of Saturday.