Prince Albert and area gets a nice string of warm weather days to end the winter season. (Ronald Quaroni/paNOW staff)

By Ronald Quaroni

Double-Digits

Last day of winter sets daily record high in 76-year weather history

Mar 20, 2019 | 12:35 PM

After the fourth coldest February on record, locals experienced double-digit highs to mark the end of winter yesterday.

Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said the warm-up is thanks to a large upper-ridge over Western Canada.

“It puts us on the really warm side of the jet stream. We know that the jet stream is the delineator of cold air to the North and warm air to the South,” Lang told paNOW.

All that warm air is leading to some nice results for the city.

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Lang said yesterday’s high of 10.2 Celsius was the hottest day is 76 years.

“Certainly since 1943 that is the record for that time period,” Lang explained.

She said it’s still a few degrees away from the all-time daily record of 15.6 C that was set back in 1928.

Lang said the above average temperatures should last for a while. The mercury will peak mid-week and begin to taper off closer to normal during the weekend.

Although the forecast looks good and the end of the month is approaching, Lang advised it’s still too early to put the snow shovel away.

“We know that it can snow well into April and sometimes even May,” Lang said. “We often get our heaviest snows in the spring time, just because there’s more energy available in the atmosphere and more moisture.”

One benefit of living in Central Saskatchewan this time of year, Lang said is the weather warms up faster than the rest of the province.

“We still have snow cover across Southern Saskatchewan, and the trees in the North tend to absorb the heat a lot better than the snow bouncing it away,” she said.

To clarify any confusion, Lang noted the daily record highs listed on Environment Canada’s website are not fully up to date, with some records not showing up in their daily tally.

Spring officially begins today at 3:58 p.m.

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Ron.quaroni@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @RonaldQuaroni