7 more Sask. weather records broken before arctic chill passes

Even more Saskatchewan weather records have been broken as of Jan. 24, in the midst of an arctic air mass.

The province will soon see reprieve from the bitter, consistent cold plunging most of the province below –30, with wind chill values reaching –50 in some areas.

Dan Fulton, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said that the arctic air mass made temperatures drop to historic lows overnight.

“We had a bitterly cold, massive Arctic air mass that was over much of the eastern Prairies,” said Fulton. “Relatively light winds last night anyway, but temperatures are dropping quite substantially. Looking at lows, quite a few lows in the –35, it even touched –40 there in the province last night."

Now that the arctic air mass is continuing south and moving off the Prairies, a warming period has begun. The north is expected to warm up first, followed by the southern part of the province.

However, Fulton says that not everyone will get the same rise in temperatures once the air mass passes.

“It depends where you are,” said Fulton. “If you're in Saskatoon, we're expecting by next weekend, highs pretty close to 0. So that's a pretty big improvement. And also quite a bit warmer than the kind of normal temperatures for this time of year. Normal high for this time of year is around –9 there.”

Six more records have been set for the minimum temperature on the night of Jan. 24, with one shattering the previous coldest point by nine degrees. 

• Last Mountain Lake set a record of –38.3, where they have been keeping records for over 50 years.

• The area of Lucky Lake beat their old record by over 4 degrees, reaching –37, the coldest since recording began in 1972.

• The area of Key Lake reached the frosty new record of –48.5, where records have been kept since 1976. 

• Nipawin hit an unbelievably cold –41.8, passing the former record from 1954. This is the coldest the town has seen on the date since records began 99 years ago.

• Weyburn made a new record of –34.5 overnight, where the weather has been monitored since 1953.

• Yorkton hit a low of –39.2, beating the –37.8 benchmark set in 1972. The town’s temperature records have been kept since 1941.

• A notable record from the night of Jan. 23, Rockglen hit –36.5, destroying the record of –27.5 set in 2003. Records in this area have been kept since 1970.

Fulton says the next few days should ease much of the province back to a more manageable temperature, but the rest of the winter is still up in the air.