The cold air that has gripped all of Saskatchewan for the past week is thanks to a ridge of high pressure coming down from the Arctic. The system has prompted extreme cold warnings since Saturday and is expected to stick around a little bit longer.
“It doesn’t look like it’ll be improving much until kind of early to mid-next week,” explained Steven Berg, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada. He noted the seasonal values will likely not return until next weekend, meaning the Arctic high will be sticking around for quite some time.
There is a possibility the extreme cold warnings could end, though, before the warm-up to seasonal conditions arrives.
“There are chances that a couple of days here and there might be outside of extreme cold warnings, but for the next little while it looks to be very close,” Berg added.
The reason for the cold weather can be linked back to the weather phenomenon of La Nina. It was a La Nina system that was responsible for the bitterly cold periods in 2022 and 2023, including a stretch of 12 days where much of the province was under a cold warning in February of 2022.
“It’s actually a fairly weak La Nina this time out, but there are other factors in play”, said Berg. “The North Pacific and Arctic patterns are really conducive to bringing these cold periods.”
La Nina is also known for bringing more snow to the prairies.
“A few Alberta clipper systems that have gone through and brought snowfall amounts of maybe up to 20 centimetres or more in certain storms, so it’s been certainly quite a snowy period for a good chunk of southern Saskatchewan,” he continued.
Berg reminded everyone to stay in tune with their bodies and seek warm shelter if they are outside for extended periods, especially those who are working outside.
You can stay up to date with the latest forecast by visiting the Discover Humboldt Weather page.