Spring may be around the corner, but winter isn't leaving without a fight. (Rob Mahon/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Short Cold Snap

Spring weather on hold in Prince Albert area due to high pressure system

Mar 6, 2023 | 11:00 AM

Sometimes, it seems as if the weather knows when the calendar has changed over to a new month. This time, however, no one dropped Mother Nature the memo that March began, and the official start of spring is not even three weeks away.

Prince Albert residents, and those elsewhere in Saskatchewan, awoke to a bone-chillingly cold morning today with temperatures getting as low as -33 C. The cold weather isn’t likely to fade away for a couple more days yet either.

“We are stuck under an area of high pressure,” said Jesse Wagar, meteorologist with Environment Canada. “That’s really helping to keep the entire region pretty cold. It’s clearing the skies, and cold temperatures have been the story of the last little bit.”

It was only three days ago Prince Albert saw a high of 0 so the sudden turn to -33 this morning may seem a bit extreme, especially for this time of year.

“The Canadian Prairies are such a variable area for weather and temperature,” Wagar said. “I think we’re used to it. I don’t know if we’re surprised anymore with these intensely fluctuating temperatures.”

Court proceedings

'The impact of this trauma will echo for generations': court case surrounding La Ronge woman's death reaches conclusion

15h ago

Going Global

P.A.'s Zablocki named to Team Canada for U18 Women's World Championships

15h ago

Election 2024

Birch Hills staff won't share election decision

16h ago

It’s now late enough in the season that a January-style deepfreeze isn’t likely, and there’s no extreme cold warning on the way as daytime highs are warm enough to avoid it. We are in for at least a few more evenings where you’ll need to plug in the car, however.

“Daytime highs of -10 or -15-ish over the next couple of days,” Wagar said. “Last night’s should be the coldest overnight low. Tonight will probably still be quite cold in that -25 or -28 -ish range. It’s closer to -20 for overnight lows over the next couple of nights.”

This time, however, relief from the cold weather is at least visible in the seven-day forecast. By the middle of the week, overnight lows will begin to get less extreme, and by the weekend we’ll almost be back to average temperatures for this time of year.

“Into the latter half of the weekend it looks like we’ll be back up to those temperatures closer to normal, -5 to 0 for daytime highs,” said Wagar. “There is relief in sight, we’ve just got to get this big, cold, high-pressure system to get out of the way first.”

Wagar added because we’re coming out of a La Niña winter, spring overall is likely to be a little colder than normal.

—

rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP