From Uranium City to Climax: cold pummels Prairies

Save for the province’s southeast corner, Saskatchewan was entirely enveloped Wednesday morning in extreme cold warnings from Environment Canada.

Regions from Uranium City in the far north all the way down to Climax and the U.S. border were under warnings.

At 3:30 p.m., Regina, Yorkton, Coronach and surrounding communities were added to the list. So far only Weyburn, Estevan, Carlyle and Moosomin areas are the only parts of the province not under the extreme cold warning.

The weather agency said the extreme cold was due to an Arctic high pressure ridge parked over the province. That cool air was pushing temperatures down enough that even light gusts of 5 to 10 km/h were producing windchills in the -40 C to -50 C range.

Those extreme wind chills were expected to stick around through Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

School bus service was cancelled for both the Saskatoon public and Catholic divisions. The Prairie Spirit School Divison also cancelled buses due to the extreme cold.  While buses weren’t running, all schools were to remain open with classes running as normal.

Regions not under extreme cold warnings were still frigid Wednesday morning.

Regina saw a wind chill of -36 C with a temperature of -28 C. In Weyburn, the wind chill was at -33 C with the temperature at -25 C.

The area around Yorkton was forecast to reach -26 C with a wind chill value of -34 C.

The weather agency advised people to keep emergency supplies in their vehicles, including extra blankets and jumper cables.

When wind chill values are in the -28 to -39 C range, exposed skin can freeze in 10 to 30 minutes; in the -40 to -47 C wind chill range, exposed skin can freeze in five to 10 minutes.

There’s also a higher risk of hypothermia under such conditions.