As the heat rises so do the number of wildfires in the province. That number has jumped again to 73 as of this morning with 22 not contained. There have been 302 fires so far this year while 211 is the five-year average.
The entire province of Saskatchewan remains under a heat warning today. Two new record highs were set in Saskatchewan Wednesday. In La Ronge 34.4 degrees is the new record breaking the old record of 33.2 degrees set in 2012 with records having been kept since 1923. And in Southend the new record Wednesday was 36 degrees breaking the old record of 33.9 degrees also from 2012 with records having been kept there since 1938. There were 29 new record highs set in Alberta and 17 in BC.
Saskatchewan residents experienced temperatures in the mid-30’s Thursday with humidex values into the 40s. Coronach was the hotspot in the province Wednesday at 37.2 degrees.
SaskPower’s Joel Cherry says early Tuesday evening power usage in the province, in the midst of this heatwave, peaked at 3,612 Megawatts which he says is 57 MW shy of the summer record. With the hot weather continuing SaskPower is forecasting high peaks again for the next few days. The highest peaks in the province, however, occur in the winter and the all-time peak is 3,910 MW, set in December 2021.