Winter warm up making perfect snow carving conditions for sculptor

The wet and sticky snow is making white gold for a Regina winter chiseller.

Artist Bron Nurkowski said temperatures around zero create the best conditions to carve wintry designs out of the snow.

Read more:

• Record-breaking temperatures recorded in 12 Saskatchewan communities on Monday
• Rock on!: What it takes to pull off Saskatchewan curling provincials
• How a Sask. dad gave Sunset Estates kids a place to skate again

“This is perfect,” he said. “It sure beats the -25 that I made the other sculpture in.

“These are amazing temperatures to play in.”

Nurkowski created an six-foot-tall smiling Santa signing the American Sign Language symbol for “I love you” to raise money for the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentorship group.

Nurkowski said each larger display takes 20 hours to complete. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)

He said the milder temperatures are the perfect opportunity for people to try make their own carvings.

“If you make a mistake by carving, you get some more wet snow and you patch it all up,” he said. “Snow is an amazing medium to work with in terms of carving and patching.”

Nurkowski said it’s best to start each carving with a good foundation.

He uses a makeshift plywood box to create his large design, but has used five-gallon pails for smaller designs.

The wet and sticky snow packs down into containers better, he said, and make them easier to chisel away at.

Nurkowski uses a machete to whittle down his snow block, but said the tool could be swapped out for spatulas for kids.

Nurkowski has previously taught kids snow carving classes. (Bron Nurkowski/Submitted)

“The thing to a best sculpture is imagination and patience,” he said. “Never give up.”

Nurkowski said he is hoping to carve a gnome by the end of this year.

‘Rare’ rainbow in Regina

This isn’t something you see during the dead of winter: a rainbow.

Thanks to some mild temperatures and rain, a rainbow was spotted in downtown Regina Monday afternoon.

A rainbow spotted in Regina’s downtown on Jan. 12, 2026, following a day of mild weather and rain. (980 CJME file photo)

Danielle Desjardins, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said this is a rare sight.

“Typically, the droplets in the sky are actually frozen, especially when it’s much, much colder in the winter. So you’re much more likely to see the sun dogs … Rainbows require liquid water, so it’s very rare, but not surprising, given how mild the temperatures have been,” she said.

While a rainbow in January, surrounded by snow, might come as a surprise to some, all it takes is a little bit of rain and some sunshine.

“When you have those water droplets ahead of you, and the sun is behind you, that sunlight is going to reflect and refract the light on those liquid water droplets and that’s what creates the rainbow,” Desjardins explained.

And with more mild temperatures in the forecast, there’s a possibility for more rainbows.

“There’s not a zero chance, but we’ll just have to keep an eye on the sky before we see the cool down later this week,” she said.

Record-high temperatures were recorded in at least 12 communities across Saskatchewan during the wave of warm weather.

The warmest area on Monday was the southwest corner of Saskatchewan, where Maple Creek got up to 12 C and Cypress Hills Provincial Park hit 10.6 C, which set a new record.

Sun dogs appear most vividly when the sun is low, near sunrise or sunset and when temperatures are extremely low. (980 CJME file photo)

Not a sun dog

While a sun dog and a rainbow both require sunlight and might look similar, Desjardins said they are different.

“Sun dogs appear around the sun itself,” she said.

“It’s the same refraction of the light… But it’s slightly different in the sense that it’s refracting the light off of those ice crystals, instead of the water droplets, and it appears as a halo around the sun.”

Sun dogs typically occur under very cold temperatures.

— with files from 980 CJME’s Nicole Garn and 650 CKOM’s Marija Robinson