Any plants and vegetables left uncovered overnight could be sporting some frost damage today, after temperatures dipped below freezing early Tuesday morning. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Trevor Redden

Touch of Frost

Record-breaking temperatures bring frost across Saskatchewan

Sep 8, 2020 | 12:44 PM

With the last long weekend of summer just barely in the books, regions all across Saskatchewan got their first taste of winter on Tuesday morning.

Arctic air blew in across the province, leading to widespread frost in the early morning and a total of 20 temperature records broken.

Terri Lang, meteorologist with Environment Canada, explained what happened.

“We had an Alberta clipper, sort of a typical fall clipper where you get the warm temperatures ahead of it which we had on Saturday,” Lang said. “The cold front came through with lots of wind, and a big push of cold air from the arctic. Once the skies cleared out and the winds dropped off, that allowed the cold air to deepen and allowed the frost to form.”

The coldest spot in the province was Coronach, where the mercury dipped to a frigid -8.8 C overnight, smashing the previous record of -1.5 C set in 1995.

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In the northern part of the province, records were broken in Waskesiu, Spiritwood and Meadow Lake. Spiritwood reached -6.3 C, breaking the mark of -3.3 C back in 1948. Meadow Lake dropped to -3.3 C, just passing the record of -2.8 C set in 1961. In Waskesiu it reached -2.3 C, just nudging past the record of -2.2 C in 1974.

Although the temperature reached -4.9 C in North Battleford, -3.2 C in Prince Albert, and -1.9 C in Melfort, none of those cities broke records.

While the cold blast may signal a change of season is on the horizon, Lang suggested we don’t have to worry about that quite yet.

“We still have some warm air ahead, that was just sort of a blip. But it is that time of year when frost is likely, we’re into that zone now,” Lang said. “Next chance of frost looks to be about Sunday morning, so that’s when you’ll have to worry about covering up your tomatoes.”

In the field

Crops in the region are just starting to be harvested and have shown promise so far. While early frost is not something crop producers want to see, this first dip below freezing likely won’t have a huge impact.

Tim Oleksyn owns a mixed operation west of Prince Albert, and isn’t too concerned about the frost so far.

“It went to -2 C or -3 C depending where you’re at. There’s some damage, there’s some stuff in the garden and I really noticed in our pastures, like on the alfalfa we see some real wilting in certain areas,” Oleksyn explained. “All of our canola is swathed in good time so we’ll have no issue with that. As for what’s standing, everything is close to ripe and has been sprayed.”

At this point in the growing season, Oleksyn said the majority of crop is at a stage of ripeness where the frost won’t have a major impact. What it could do, however, is downgrade the crop when it is sold.

“Some of the canolas that are too green, it stops the process of ripening and photosynthesis, that whole curing aspect. It can definitely downgrade depending on the severity of the frost,” he said.

Another area that frost could impact the agriculture community is pastureland. Oleksyn noted he already observed damage to alfalfa where plants are beginning to wilt in some areas. If the damage is bad enough, it could limit the time cattle spend grazing this fall before starting on the bale supply.

“This kind of stuff stops the alfalfa and then you’re hoping you have lots left over for grazing instead of starting your feeding program within a number of weeks,” Oleksyn said.

Temperatures are expected to rebound this week, with daytime highs above 20 on Thursday and Friday.

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trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden