Steam Devils on Lake Ontario

Last night I went to a friend's birthday party in Downtown Toronto and decided to crash there because I wanted to stay close to the lake to catch the steam devils on Lake Ontario as the sun rose. Southern Ontario has been going through quite the cold snap in the last few days so the conditions were going to be perfect. Of course, being the only sober one at the party meant that I couldn't actually fall asleep at a reasonable time. I laid in the dark in my friend's bedroom, trying to sleep through the yelling and death metal reverberating throughout the tiny apartment. I eventually dozed off at around 4:45am..

I woke up at 6am and went down to HTO Park West. The conditions were exactly like I'd hoped. No wind, clear sky, and a balmy -21 celsius. As I drove south on Yonge St, the lake came into view and I could see the steam gently rolling over the water. "Oh my god, there it is!". I literally said that out loud to myself. Remember, I've only had an hour of sleep. Downtown is so peaceful very early in the morning. Traffic was non-existent.

 This is what the lake looked like before the sun peeked over the clouds.

Once the sun came out, all these steam devils of various sizes began to spin up. It was a bit tricky shooting directly into the sun.

After being outside for 30 minutes, I started losing feeling in my fingers, despite wearing two sets of gloves, and my cameras were starting to become less responsive. I spilled some coffee on my bag and it froze instantly. If I breathed on the viewfinder on my camera, it fogged up and turned into frost. The rim of my coffee cup had frost. I literally ran back to the car because it felt like the cold was going to overtake me. I could feel it creeping up my legs as I walked as they gradually became more numb. It reminded me of when I did the Polar Bear Swim last year. Once back in the car, I cranked the heat and it felt like my fingers were on fire. For a moment I was concerned that I actually got frostbite. Despite living here for the first 12 years of my life.. after 22 years of being in Vancouver, my tolerance for cold had weakened significantly.

This was the the perfect Valentine's Day gift to myself.

Here are the video highlights.

EDIT: I'm proud to say that this footage ended up being shown throughout the day on The Weather Network on February 15th. :)