‘3-day wonder’ cold-snap expected to hit Sask.: Environment Canada

Environment Canada is predicting a deep but brief cold snap coming to large portions of Saskatchewan over the weekend and early into next week.

The weather agency is forecasting daytime highs of -16, -13 and -16 C in Regina on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, respectively; it says Saskatoon will see daytime highs of -19, -15 and -17 C on those same days.

“We’re going to see a big ridge building to the north and some cold Siberian air coming across the North Pole, coming right down to the heart of North America,” senior climatologist David Phillips said.

Similarly, Prince Albert’s daytime highs are forecasted to be at least -15 C or colder from Sunday through Thursday.

On Saturday, the province is expected to see “a weather system … a clipper coming through,” Phillips said, predicting that about one centimetre of snow will fall.

The good news is the cold snap will be shorted-lived, with temperatures warming up to above -10 C by mid-week, he said.

“You could call (the expected cold weather) a polar vortex, but it’s like a three-day wonder, because by next Thursday temperatures are back up to single-digit highs of -3 C (in Regina).

“That’s five degrees warmer than normal,” he said.

In Saskatoon on Thursday, the forecasted high is set to be -4 C; P.A. should be at about -8 C.

Phillips said he’s not expecting cold, strong wind chills to affect the forecasted temperatures.

He used the forecast to emphasize the weather agency’s position that the 2019-20 winter should be a somewhat mild one that’s not as consistently cold as Saskatchewan’s previous winter.

“A mixed bag. A little bit of back-and-forth, up-and-down … it makes winter go faster,” he said, as opposed to those “long, drawn out periods of week after week, month of month with the same air mass just being refreshed with cold air.”