Saskatchewan to see above-normal temperatures

David Phillips delivered the good news Monday morning.

“What we’re seeing is some — well, not tropical air, but compared to what you’ve had, it’s going to feel tropical,” Environment Canada’s senior climatologist said during the Greg Morgan Morning Show. “Certainly (it will be) spring-like in this next week ahead.

“You’ve weathered (the cold); you’ve survived it. It wasn’t as long as last year, but there were moments there that were pretty brutal.”

The past week featured bone-chilling temperatures, extreme cold warnings and record-setting natural gas consumption around Saskatchewan.

Phillips pointed out the halfway point of winter passed last week, so the worst may be over.

“The polar vortex, he can come back,” Phillips said. “He has gone back home (and) he’s circling up there in the high Arctic. We’re seeing this nice Pacific air that is wafting across the west now and bringing something that is far, far tamer.

“But I look beyond. I see (in) the next seven days, we’re not just four degrees warmer than normal but nine (or) 11 degrees warmer than you’d expect. Typically, highs in Regina should be -11 and we could actually see, come Friday, melting temperatures.”

Phillips predicted daytime and nighttime temperatures will be above normal through mid-February, which will be a welcome reprieve from last week’s deep freeze.

That said, Phillips suggested there may be more cold temperatures before winter ends.

“Things are really looking up, but you know that last year, we had that terrible cold polar vortex in April,” he said. “Last year, you had 43 consecutive days without a thaw. During this particular spell, it’s only 19 days without a thaw.

“Certainly it has been cold, but the duration of this cold is certainly not what we saw last year. I think it may come back, but (it’ll) come back as maybe a two- or three-day thing, not a full month thing.”