Extreme cold settles over Sask. for day 3

Environment Canada is expecting the extreme cold weather to stick around Saskatchewan for a third-straight day, blaming it on a “a prolonged period of very cold wind chills” and a “cold, arctic air mass (that’s) entrenched over southern Saskatchewan.”

It has prompted the weather agency to issue extreme cold warnings for every region in the province, except for a few areas around Pelican Narrows and Southend.

In its warning statement, Environment Canada said, “extreme cold wind chill values of -40 C to -46 are being reported over most of southern and central Saskatchewan this morning.”

It’s expecting some of those wind chill values to reach -50 C into Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

As of 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, Regina was at -33 C with a wind chill value of -43; Saskatoon was at -35, giving a wind chill value of -43.

Further north, Prince Albert was sitting at -30 C, and the wind chill value was listed at -41.

North Battleford was the province’s coldest community, sitting at -38 C, with a wind chill value of -41.

Environment Canada reminded people that “Extreme cold puts everyone at risk.

“Watch for cold related symptoms: shortness of breath, chest pain, muscle pain and weakness, numbness and colour change in fingers and toes. Cover up. Frostbite can develop within minutes on exposed skin, especially with wind chill.”

At Regina’s public and Catholic school boards, all bus routes were operating, except for those that require special needs services, like buses that use wheelchair lifts or paratransit.

Southwest of Regina, in the Prairie South School division in and around Moose Jaw, several bus routes were cancelled due to the cold. Those routes normally run inside and outside of Moose Jaw. Check here for a full list of cancelled bus routes.