March to remain cold after brutal February in Saskatchewan

Even though it’s now March, the brutally cold weather we’ve endured for all of February is going to get at least one more kick in.

David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, said after enjoying a brief warm-up Wednesday and Thursday, most of  Saskatchewan can expect a return to significantly colder-than-normal temperatures over the weekend.

“You want it to warm up, but my sense is, this is what’s going to happen: you’re going to have to be more patient,” he said.

Both Saskatoon and Regina were expected to see temperatures dip to a low of -29 C overnight Friday and then stay near or below the -20 C mark for the rest of the weekend.

Phillips said those conditions are a good 13 to 18 degrees below average for this time of year.

He said temperatures are expected to stay cooler than normal until at least March 20, the first official day of spring.

Phillips acknowledged that’s probably not what a lot of people in the province want to hear after a month that was among the coldest in decades for much of the province.

In Saskatoon, it was the coldest February since before the Second World War, with 25 of 28 days below -20 C and 13 days below -30 C.

“It’s hard to break records in Saskatoon, your records go back to the 1880’s, but this was clearly the coldest February since 1936.”

While it was a historically cold February, Phillips said the province got enough snow to at least start to make up for some of the dryness seen over this winter.

“We’ve seen, really, right across all of southern and central Saskatchewan, we’ve seen that February has brought precipitation that has been maybe double normal in some places, certainly from 25 to 50 per cent more than normal,” he said.

Phillips said it was hard to nail down a long-term outlook for precipitation, but said it was safe to assume the province would see more snowfall over the next month.

“Usually, 30 per cent of your annual snow comes after March 1. So you’re not finished shovelling, plowing and pushing it, but we know for farmers that’s white gold,” he said.

Regina sees 5th coldest February on record

February in the Queen City was roughly 12 degrees colder than the average temperature that month, according to meteorologist Natalie Hasell.

Over the last 30 years, the average temperature in February was -11.7 C.

This past February, the average was -23.5 C.

The significant cold makes February 2019 the fifth coldest February on record.

One has to go back to 1936 to find a cold snap that tops it.

“You were not imagining things,” Hasell said, before adding – it’s not over yet.

“This weekend is very cold again. We remain in below normal temperatures but slowly increasing, slowly increasing, slowly improving for the next week (to) two weeks.”

Hasell said not to expect any spring-like temperatures until well into March.

—With files from 650 CKOM’s Gerald Bauman and 980 CJME’s Arielle Zerr