IF you're wallowing in the misery of grey, wet and brisk weather, spare a thought for your Barrhead cousins who saw the mercury plunge to -45 Celcius.

The town of Barrhead, Alberta, saw a low of -45.3C on Wednesday and a high of -30.3C. Today, the extreme cold warning continued with a high of -28C and a chance of snow.

With an additional wind of up to 15km, forecasters warned the temperature would feel like -40C.

The Government of Canada's weather service stated: "Frostbite in minutes."

Located 120km northwest of the city of Edmonton, the population of fewer than 5,000 are actually further south but don't have the benefit of a winter descending off the Rocky Mountains.

Nearby Busby, Alberta, isn't much warmer wth a high of -30C as all of the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and most of Manitoba hit record cold temperatures this week, some as low as -50C with the nighttime wind chill factors.

The dip is expected to last through the weekend until next week when the towns warm to a comfortable -2C on Monday.

If you prefer it warmer, try Dildo, Newfoundland, where tomorrow will see temperatures of -2C - but potentially 50cm to 70cm of snow.