City of Hamilton's cold weather alert policy

I’m still overcoming a nasty cold that’s drained my energies. This post is short and primarily for the purposes of sharing the chart below for easy future reference

UPDATE: At 15:05, The Medical Officer of Health for the City of Hamilton issued a Cold Weather Alert effective overnight tonight. Individuals seeing someone in need can report their location to the Salvation Army at 905-527-1444 x0

Tonight’s forecast low for Hamilton of -14°C from Environment Canada is within 1°C of the City of Hamilton’s threshold for triggering a “Cold Alert”.

The forecast wind speed of northwest 20 km/h may trigger a Cold Alert by taking the wind chill below -20 (there’s no °C used to express windchill)

Here’s a chart from the City of Hamilton Cold Alert policy that shows how wind speed influences wind chill and triggers a Cold Alert:

Last year’s first cold alert arrived on December 13, 2010. There were ten cold alerts in Hamilton last winter with the final one ending March 27, 2011.