If you were to summarize the weather in October in a few words they would be ‘warm and dry’, and that holds true according to Environment Canada’s October weather statistics.
All of the weather stations included in the report – 11 in total – showed a departure from normal temperature of at least +1.3°. Moose Jaw’s mean temperature for the month was +7.7°, 2.1° higher than expected.
“For Moose Jaw, the maximum temperature for the month of October, it looks like it was on October the 8th, and the daytime high was 26.5°.” explained Warning Preparedness Meteorologist, Danielle Desjardins.
“The lowest daytime high, that was on October 22nd, and that was a daytime high of 4.8°”
Although October 8, was the hottest day of the month, neither it nor the low experienced on the 22nd broke any records for the region. With the 8th missing the mark by a mere 0.7° and the 22nd by a full 10.4°.
Provincially, the hot spots for the month were Swift Current and Estevan, being 3.2 and 3 degrees higher than normal respectively.
Where October stood out was in the absence of precipitation, southern Saskatchewan was considerably drier than expected.
“So overall, most of the sites in southern Saskatchewan recorded 33 per cent or less of their normal monthly precipitation. For Moose Jaw, 1.2mm of rain, third driest overall for the month of October and the normal for October is 19.6mm or only 6% of your normal precipitation for the month.” said Desjardins.
North Battleford was the driest spot in southern Saskatchewan, receiving 0.1mm less precipitation than Moose Jaw, with 1.2 of the normal 16.1mm falling during the month of October.
Of all the stations reporting, Key Lake was the only region to come close to its normal levels, with 32.5/36.4mm – or 89 per cent – of precipitation in October.