While worries over whether vehicles will start are common during cold snaps like the one hitting northwestern Ontario this week, there are some steps drivers can take to keep their cars running as smoothly as possible despite the cold.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is forecasting some frigid days and nights over the coming week, with temperatures regularly falling below -20 C overnight (lows will hit about -31 C on Thursday and Friday nights), and daytime highs in the area of minus -19 C.
Conditions will be similar throughout the region, as well, the agency says.
And the cold weather is leading to busy days for Neil Cutting, shop manager at Thunder Bay’s Payless Automotive Maintenance and Repairs.
“When it’s really bad, you get a lot of battery calls, alternator issues, power steering,” he said. “A lot of power steering lines blow. You get transmission issues that creep up, lot of fluid stuff and then some sensors and stuff like that. “
Cutting said there are some simple things people can do to keep their cars running during extreme cold, such as getting a block heater and plugging the vehicle in at night.
“Essentially, most block heaters will keep your coolant warm, which keeps the whole engine warm,” he said. “Then the oil gets up to the engine quicker.”
Neil Cutting is shop manager at Payless Automotive Maintenance and Repairs in Thunder Bay. (Marc Doucette/CBC)
“Generally if it’s (-12 to -15 C) or lower, then it’s a good idea to plug it in.”
Battery blankets are also a good option, Cutting said.
“It keeps your battery warm, so it’ll keep the cold cranking up,” he said. “When it gets down to like -30, – 40, you’re going to lose half your cold cranking amps right off of the bat, so your battery is only working at like 50 per cent.”
“That’s why you end up with a lot of battery issues,” Cutting said. “We always tell customers if you do short trips, maybe go on a highway drive during the week and it helps charge that battery back up.”
WATCH | What drivers can do to keep their vehicles running during a cold snap:
What drivers can do to keep their vehicles running during a cold snap
Northwestern Ontario is facing frigid temperatures this week, with overnight lows dropping to around -30 C in some places. The CBC’s Kris Ketonen stopped by Payless Automotive Maintenance and Repairs in Thunder Bay, Ont., where he spoke with shop manager Neil Cutting about how to keep vehicles running during sudden cold snaps.
Meanwhile, owners of electric or hybrid vehicles need to keep reduced battery performance in mind, as well, he said.
“You just end up with, with a shorter drive length,” Cutting said. “If your battery is good for (300 or 400 kilometres), you might end up with only 150, 200, because it just operates at less capacity when it’s really cold.”
“And actually electric vehicles have two sets of batteries,” he said. “They have the big one and then they have a small 12-volt battery just like your regular car that they use for other things. And that’s generally the one that ends up with a problem.”
Other tips Cutting had include having a set of jumper cables, a battery booster pack, and a jug of coolant on-hand during cold weather driving.
Hot weather in the long term forecast
Meanwhile, hotter weather may seem a long way off right now, but Environment and Climate Change Canada is predicting a warm year in 2026, in northwestern Ontario, and around the world.
But it’s not exactly good news.
The agency recently released its annual global mean temperature forecast, which states that 2026 is expected to be among the hottest years on record — comparable to 2023 and 2025, and approaching 2024.
“There’s a benchmark which is discussed a lot, which is current global temperatures relative to pre-industrial,” said Bill Merryfield, research scientist with ECCC. “Pre-industrial is usually considered to be an average between 1850 and 1900.”
“There’s been a lot of discussion about a 1.5 C of warming, which is a figure prominently in the Paris agreement,” he said. “Recent years, starting in 2023 were … considerably warmer than any previous year.”
2026, ECCC said, is expected to fall in the range of 1.35 C to 1.53 C above pre-industrial levels.
Merryfield said the main cause is the long-term increase in greenhouse gas emissions, but the El Nino/La Nina cycle also plays a role.
“When there’s a La Nina, as we’ve had this winter, and actually five of the last six winters, we have unusually-cool ocean surface temperatures down in the tropical Pacific,” he said. “That tends to pull heat out of the atmosphere and into the ocean, because of the large temperature contrast between the atmosphere and the ocean in that region.”
“But when that pattern reverses and there’s an El Nino, the temperatures down in the tropical Pacific can get sort of several degrees above average values, and that tends to pour heat back into the atmosphere and serves as sort of a mechanism for boosting global temperatures.”
Merryfield said an El Nino is expected to develop towards the end of 2026, which means there’s a “very good chance that 2027 will set a new record due to the warming influence of that El Nino and global temperatures.”
