Here's when it might feel like spring in Sask.
It will be a while longer before Saskatchewan feels the spring thaw, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
“Unfortunately, the forecast for at least the next 10 days and even into the next month, and the spring beyond is for colder than average temperatures,” meteorologist Terri Lang told CTV News.
“That doesn't mean that we won't get warm days, it just means that on average, it's going to be cooler than average spring.”
Lang said the cooler temperatures are connected to the severe weather south of the border.
“I think that's just still the hangover effects that we're having the jet stream, which is the delineator, between the cold air to the north, and the warmer air to the south, is sitting well, south of us, it's going through California, giving them more headaches through the southern United States, giving them tornadoes and severe storms. So that's where all the energy and the warmth is way down there.”
She said it was going to take a while for the warmth to head north.
The forecast for the next week indicates Saskatoon could see positive temperatures on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday while Regina will have to wait until the weekend before seeing temperatures over zero.
Lang said this March has been about the 20 coldest on record.
“That is significant. The other thing is that we haven't been getting very warm temperatures. We haven't seen any temperatures up to plus one yet so far this March. That's also significant. We'll see if we can kind of get over the freezing mark tomorrow,” Lang said.
Details from ECCC indicate there have been several record-breaking temperatures in the province.
Some of the cold weather record-breakers for Tuesday include the Elbow area, which broke a 1969 low of -22.8 C and set a record of -23.1 C. The Kindersley area also set a new record low of -24 C, breaking a 1954 record of -20.6 C.
Last Mountain Lake area saw a new record of -29.8 C, overcoming the 2014 record low of -22.5 C. On Sunday, the Collins Bay area beat a low of -32.9 C set in 2015 with a new record low of -34.7 C.
Lang said temperatures have been about eight degrees below average, which will carry on into April.
“If we're going to be running below average, just the way the weather pattern is looking, we're probably going to continue to run on average about five to eight degrees below.”
She’s also not ruling out another snowfall.
“Spring and fall are the two seasons that we tend to get the heaviest snowfalls through at least southern Saskatchewan. That's because these Colorado lows tend to move up from Colorado and because they're kind of moving up from the south they're tapping into the warmer moist air so that tends to give us our heaviest snowfall of the year,” Lang said.
“We did have one clip, southeastern Saskatchewan, a week or so back but we're not seeing any sneaking north of the border but we always keep our eye on them just because April is a month that we can get heavy snowfall. So, I wouldn't say that we were out of snowfall.”
Lang said the weather forecast is good news for farmers in the province.
“It's been pretty darn dry. So, a slow melt of that snow is good news for farmers because that means that the ground will be able to absorb it faster. And because we have a really fast warm up and it melts really quickly because the ground is frozen at a low runoff and the farmers won't benefit so there is a silver lining to it all.”
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