Forecast calls for mild winter weather to continue in Sask. with some cold snaps

On average, the weather in January felt more like March across southern Saskatchewan.

“Most of the stations are running about two to three degrees above average temperatures for this time of year,” said Terri Lang, meteorologist with Environment Canada.

She says there was only one bad cold snap when temperatures dipped down into the -30 C range, but after all, that would be considered normal for January. In the last week of January, the temperature was above freezing for several days.

“There was just one day that records were hit, and that was January 28. New records were set in Elbow, in Hudson Bay, and in Rosetown and those were for really mild temperatures of course,” she said.

Maple Creek hit 14 C that day, but it wasn’t a record for the southwestern town.

Lang says long range forecasts show the mild winter weather brought by El Nino will continue for February.

“Of course we’ll always have our colder days and we’ll have our warmer days, it will just sort of average out to be warmer than average,” she said.

On Feb. 2, she says the groundhog won’t likely see his shadow in most places across the province due to cloud cover, so we can keep our fingers crossed for an early spring.