Lotusland gets Arctic makeover, briefly

For a day, Vancouver looked a lot like an Olympic winter host city, after a surprise snowfall blanketed the city Saturday night, causing chaos and 44 traffic accidents on city streets.

Arctic winds rattled through the city, plunging the mercury to a "dangerously cold" -10C—within sight of Vancouver’s all-time record low: -13C, set in 1964.

For a day, Vancouverites talked of exotic products and ideas, like snow tires, anti-freeze, Sorels and "the windchill factor."

There’s only a dusting of snow left on the city’s green lawns today, however, and residents have begun to re-emerge.