Saskatchewan warming up after bitter cold spell

After a nasty cold snap, Saskatchewan can expect warmer temperatures heading into the weekend.

“There’s a warm front that’s coming in out of Alberta,” Kyle Ziolkowski, an operational meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Friday. “And there’s some ridge building in over B.C. that’s pushing in some warm air over the prairies that’s going to flood in.”

Ziolkowski said temperatures for the province will fluctuate between average and below average for the month of February.

“You’re going to have periods where it’s going to be just a few degrees below normal and then some days where it’s going to be above normal,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a seesaw pattern this week, but that’s what we’re looking at for the foreseeable future.”

Ziolkowski also said certain areas of the province might see some snowfall.

“But it’s going to be very light in accumulations, like only maybe a couple centimetres in a spot,” he said.

Ziolkowski highlighted Yorkton, Nipawin, Regina and Meadow Lake as places that might be affected by the snow. But again, he said the accumulation wouldn’t be significant.

Ziolkowski said the warm weather is the result of a pattern change.

“There’s an arctic high that went through (Saskatchewan) and is now starting to shift off,” he said. “The polar vortex which was sitting over Hudson Bay is beginning to weaken and shift back north towards the pole, and that is allowing some more Pacific air to flood over the prairies as a result.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Nicholas Iatropoulos