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Winter fell like a bad joke Monday as Canucks felt colder than Santa, Newfoundland issued surf warnings and Vancouver was named the city most likely to have a picture-perfect white Christmas.

The punchline? By the time Christmas arrives, snow and freezing temperatures expected across the country will seem like child's play.

Arctic winds hit the B.C. coast, extreme wind chills descended on the Prairies, snow squalls dogged Ontario and winter storms lashed the Maritimes, bringing 163 kilometre-an-hour wind gusts to Cape Breton Island and storm surges along Newfoundland's south coast.

But the madness should now start to ease, turning the country into a picture of holiday bliss on the 25th for the first national white Christmas since 1971.

“We'll breathe a collective sigh of relief,” Environment Canada climatologist Dave Phillips said. “This is a taste of what old-fashioned winters were like. It gives us a badge of courage we can wear.”

Hurricane-strength storms left about 30,000 homes and businesses without electricity in Nova Scotia. Some 8,000 power customers in New Brunswick and hundreds of others in PEI were also left in the dark.

Meanwhile, N.B. ferry services were shut, and all morning flights at Fredericton cancelled after 30 centimetres of snow fell before 4 a.m.

“With three storms last week and now this, we're definitely busy,” NB Power spokesperson Heather McLean said.

Dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed at the Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg airports, and massive build-up of snow caused the air bubble dome over the Calgary Soccer Centre to collapse, forcing the indefinite closure of all indoor fields.

Southern Ontario, however, had a one-day reprieve: After two storms in four days, another is expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon, bringing snow and rain.

“The only area that's not on any warnings is Nunavut, the Yukon and North West Territories,” Mr. Phillips said.

Even Santa wasn't having it as tough as some Canadians. While the International Arctic Buoy program's drifting meteorological buoys recorded a -26.4 high near the North Pole, Fort St. John was -31, Slave Lake was -30, Brandon was -26 and all major cities on the Prairies hovered below -20.

This wild winter was predicted some time ago, thanks to El Nino and La Nina currents, said Ian Church, chair of the national International Polar Year committee.

But when polar temperatures creep down toward the border, he said people sometimes take it as a sign that “someone threw a [global warming] switch somewhere and it's off.”

Sadly, he said the long-range isn't nearly as idyllic. “Extreme events [are] always something that's predicted with climate change. We're going to get more of this,” Mr. Church said.

Historically, Thunder Bay and Quebec City are most likely to have snow on the ground for Dec. 25, along with Whitehorse, Iqaluit and Yellowknife.

But it's Vancouver that has received the ideal forecast of both snow on the ground and in the air.

The Prairies will have brilliant sunshine and brutally cold temperatures, dipping to -35 in Saskatoon. Quebec will get a mix of sun and cloud, while the Maritimes will get a reprieve from Monday's storms.

And Toronto will enjoy relatively balmy zero degrees and sunshine. “This is Mother Nature's way of making up for the misery this area has been having,” Mr. Phillips said.

With files from Dawn Walton and The Canadian Press