A Pacific upper ridge is now winning the battle in the skies, which means we are now, after a couple of weeks of deep freeze conditions, in for a serious warm-up here in the southeast.
Samantha Mauti, Meteorologist with Environment Canada, said we were previously under an Arctic high-pressure system, which generally means cold temperatures.
"We were getting lots of Arctic air funneling in from an Arctic high-pressure system sitting at the surface."
"Seeing temperatures in the forecast that are near zero, and then even getting above zero is quite a contrast, so we're undergoing a bit of a pattern change," she noted. "We had this very strong upper low sitting over the western parts of the country generally, which means cold temperatures."
The pattern change now shows warmer air coming from the Pacific and over through BC, bringing those higher temperatures.
"Even as we move into the end of the week and into early next week, we're seeing an upper ridge build into the prairies, which generally means warmer temperatures. So we're seeing that ridge bringing the temperatures well above normal for this time of the year ... across a lot of the prairies."
She said for context, a normal high temperature for the end of January for our area is about -9°C.
"Even though El Nino does mean generally warmer conditions and drier conditions across the prairies, it doesn't mean that there's going to be no Arctic air or no cold weather through like an El Nino winter, because of course weather does involve more changes, it's more back and forth."
"That upper ridge does divert the systems over the ridge," she explained. "Because of this upper ridge that's building in, the storm track is further north, so not expected to see much snowfall for the Weyburn area as we're under this upper ridging."
She added the track of the low pressure systems are going above the ridge, which will see more snowfall landing further north in the prairies and the southern territories.
Find the full five-day forecast HERE.