Saskatchewan cold snap ending as temperatures set to climb
Saskatchewan residents will soon get a reprieve from the wicked winter weather that has been walloping parts of the province.
Environment Canada is forecasting that Saskatchewan will see temperatures change drastically in the coming days with some areas expected to reach temperatures above 0 C.
For example, in Lucky Lake in Southwest Saskatchewan — where some of the largest changes are expected — it felt like -33 C with the windchill on Sunday morning, but Environment Canada is expecting the small community to be 2 C on Monday.
On Sunday in Saskatoon it felt like -36 C with the windchill and in Regina it felt like -31 C. As the week starts however, those temperatures are set to rise, with Regina expected to see a high of -7 C on Monday and -1 C on Tuesday.
In the Bridge City temperatures are expected to hover between -4 C and -7 C throughout the week.
"It appears the cold snap is coming to an end," said David Carlsen, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
He said Saskatchewan and Alberta have experienced frigid temperatures in recent days, as a cold air mass worked its way from the North Pole, Northern Canada and even Siberia into the prairies.
Now, a warmer air mass coming off the Pacific is slowly working its way east, warming up parts of western Alberta on Saturday, where some areas saw temperatures go from -20 C to 2 C over the course of an hour.
"We're not going to see the switch in such a speedy fashion, but over a couple of hours we're still going to see temperatures go from the minus 20s to close to 0 tomorrow," he said. "So it'll be a very noticeable change."
Carlsen said Sunday night will likely see the cold weather making an exit, and it's likely temperatures will actually rise overnight Sunday into Monday morning.
"Take what you've got today add 15 to 20 degrees and that's what you're looking at tomorrow," he said.
Despite the arrival of warm weather, Carlsen said it's not likely Saskatchewan will see any records broken, but notes temperatures will be "well above" average.
In Saskatoon, Carlsen said temperatures will be between five to eight degrees warmer than average and in Regina, temperatures will be off seasonal averages by eight to ten degrees.
Carlsen said he doesn't expect any issues around flooding or melt water. He says while road conditions may improve in the coming days, it's important motorists are careful on morning and overnight commutes when moisture can re-freeze.
The recent cold-snap was a record-breaker in at least one capacity, as SaskEnergy reported the province broke its record for natural gas consumption last week.
Last week, the Crown Corporation said customers used 1.56 petajoules of natural gas, with one petajoule equalling one million gigajoules. The average home in Saskatchewan uses 100 gigajoules of natural gas every year.
When asked to look ahead to the rest of the winter, Carlsen said temperatures will remain seasonal for the rest of the season, but noted it's tough to determine as the signals remain mixed.
