Environment Canada climatologist says warm, cold temperatures duking it out

Winter in Saskatchewan this year might be a battle between extreme cold and the warm temperatures of El Niño.

At least that’s how Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips said it could be characterized when asked about it on Wednesday’s Evan Bray Show.

“People were lulled into thinking that this was the year that we cancelled winter. I don’t think that’s ever happened in Saskatchewan,” he told Bray with a chuckle.

After coming off of extremely warm and in some cases even record-setting temperatures in December and early January, Phillips said the province is entering its first real bout with winter this season.

Phillips said snow from the Alberta Clippers that recently came through the province haven’t brought a lot of a moisture, but the snow was still welcome for farmers.

Bone-chilling temperatures, however, aren’t that welcome.

“Every time that you get that, (it kind of) greases the skids for the cold air to come sweeping down and we’ve seen that (with a) number of these Alberta Clippers. They come through and now we find the jet stream is well-positioned to the south,” Phillips said.

“That means you’re into the cold air (or) the arctic air — whatever way you want to describe it.”

Phillips said this upcoming weekend is normally when the province enters the “dead of winter,” which is the period of the year where temperatures get the coldest.

“It’s the point where you reach the lowest point and then from that point on, statistically at least, the temperatures begin to go up,” he said. “So it means that there is more winter behind you than ahead of you going forward.”

However, Phillips said while this is the time when that normally happens, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee Saskatchewan is entering the dead of winter this weekend.

Phillips also added that this year’s winter being late doesn’t inevitably mean it will last longer. He suggested this could be a short winter.

“People are worried. They think (winter is postponed) but not cancelled – but it doesn’t mean there’s a certain number of days of winter and you’ve got to use them all up,” he said.

Phillips said some of the push-pull between the cold and El Niño comes from El Niño blowing in strongly and then relaxing, followed by cold temperatures rushing in.

As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, all of the snowfall warnings that had been issued for Saskatchewan earlier in the week had been removed, leaving just extreme cold warnings up for areas in the north.

According to the Highway Hotline, visibility was reduced in some areas around Yorkton and Melville, but advisories put out earlier Wednesday saying travel wasn’t recommended in some regions had been removed.

Bray’s interview with Phillips can be heard here: