Six Sask. temperature records fall in heat wave on Friday

People in southern Saskatchewan were feeling the heat on Friday as they experienced record-setting temperatures.

Six different locations received sizzling heat that shattered the records, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

By mid-afternoon the following records had been set in:

Coronach – 38.7 C, (previous record 36.7 set in 1973)
Rockglen – 37 C (previous record 35.6 set in 1973)
Weyburn – 34.5 C (previous record 34.4 set in 1983)
Regina – 35.9 C (previous record 35.6 set in 1947)
Moose Jaw – 38.1 C (previous record 35 set in 1959)
Assiniboia – 38.2 (previous record 36.1 set in 1973)

“It looks like the heat wave isn’t quite over yet,” said meteorologist Andy Yun on Friday.

“A lot of these areas are clustered pretty close together so it seems like where the heat was concentrated this afternoon was pretty close to between Regina and Coronach area.”

Yun said it was the second straight day that Coronach had set a new heat record.

Yun also said the temperatures were all brought on by the same weather pattern and that Friday would likely be the warmest day before the weather shifts east from Saturday.

“Towards the end of the long weekend, we’ve got a drastic change in the weather pattern so we’ve got some cooler weather, unsettled weather to come in for late Sunday and into Monday,” he said.

“Temperatures to end the long weekend and going into next week will probably drop down into the low 20s, and we’ll be back into cooler, unsettled weather with some chance of showers and thunderstorms in the region.”

Yun said it has been a fairly dry month, continuing the trend observed by Environment Canada in July.

“While the area was fairly warm, a lot of regions were fairly dry, too, with absolutely no precipitation,” he said.

“A lot of areas across southern Saskatchewan, any measurable precipitation they had was recorded in the first week of July and certainly nothing over the last three weeks or so.”

Although cooler weather is expected next week, Yun said the heat could make a comeback based on long-range forecasts.

He said a ridge of high pressure and warmer temperatures could bring the area close to daytime highs of 30 C again by mid-August.

Yun said 37 temperature records were broken in Saskatchewan in July.

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