Saskatchewan set for Friday afternoon break from extreme cold

Saskatchewan is set to get some relief from the deep freeze Friday.

While it was frigid in the morning, with extreme cold warnings up and wind chills down to -50 C in some spots, the weather office was predicting a warmup throughout much of the province.

The high temperature in Regina was set to hit -12 C, while it was to be -17 C in Saskatoon.

Kyle McAuley, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, broke down what to expect.

He said the relatively mild temperatures were to hit Friday afternoon. Then, it will cool down significantly at night, and stay extremely cold throughout the weekend.

“Those extreme cold warnings may be lifted, (but) we may just keep them out, because it’s expected to return again tonight and be pretty close to -40 C wind chills. These really strong winds will definitely give us some pretty cold temperatures again,” he said.

Extreme cold warnings were lifted in many areas, but they were replaced in some places by special weather statements and blowing snow advisories. Regina was under a blowing snow advisory late Friday morning.

After a frigid weekend, the province will finally see a multi-day warmup next week.

Highs hovering around the -10 C mark and even rising into the single digits are expected from Monday to Thursday in most of Saskatchewan.