Temperatures to fall as cold air drives out cloud cover

People in Saskatoon should be able to put away their snow shovels for the week, but Reginans can expect to keep them out a little longer.

Both cities will, however, experience well-below-average temperatures for the rest of this week.

“It’s an Arctic ridge that’s just anchored over the prairies. Once you get the cold air that’s really situated in an area, it’s kind of hard to kick it out,” Environment Canada meteorologist Shannon Moodie said.

In Saskatoon, lingering cloud cover is expected to clear out through Tuesday morning, leading into colder temperatures.

“There won’t be any snow, there’s no major systems that’ll be moving through the Saskatoon area. So, we’re just expecting clear skies and cold pretty much for the whole week,” Moodie said.

Temperatures through to Sunday in Saskatoon were expected to hit highs in the -23 C to -25 C range, with lows dipping below -30 C. Moodie said there would likely be extreme wind chill warnings on some of the colder nights.

Moodie said cloud cover was expected to linger a little longer in Regina, which would keep Tuesday’s overnight low above -30 C.

The clouds are expected to bring about two centimetres of snow through Tuesday, with about another centimetre falling overnight.

“They’ll stay cloudy through Wednesday, but then they’re going to get into the clearing and temperatures are going to plummet. Overnight lows will be sitting around that extreme wind chill range of -40 C,” Moodie said.

Average highs for both cities at this time of year are just above -10 C.

By 8 a.m. Tuesday, Environment Canada issued extreme cold warnings for all of northern Saskatchewan, including La Loche, Key Lake, Collins Bay, Uranium City and other areas.

Meadow Lake and Lloydminster were also under extreme cold warnings.