Big swing in temperatures this week – but can we hang on to the heat until Christmas?
Wind Warning
Environment Canada has issued a wind warning for the city of Lloydminster, Leader, Swift Current and Cypress Hills areas for strong winds that may cause damage expected.
An approaching upper level disturbance will spread strong westerly winds across southwestern Saskatchewan this afternoon.
Westerly winds are expected to reach warning level strength with gusts up to 90 km/h possible before easing off below warning criteria this evening.
For the latest weather alerts download the Global News Skytracker weather app for iPhone, iPad or Android.
Saskatoon Forecast
Today
We’ve finally kicked the cold, pushing the boundary between the frigid arctic air and the mild Pacific air to the north of Saskatoon.
Temperatures were actually at -1 at midnight before dropping into mid-minus single digits overnight with mostly cloudy skies that continued into the morning.
That cloud cover will stick around through the remainder of the day with a chance of light snow this afternoon mixing in as the mercury pushed back up to balmy around -2 or so.
Get breaking National news
A system sliding by north of the region is kicking up quite a pressure gradient, which means winds will pick up through the day to sustained speeds of 30 to 40 km/h and gusts in excess of 50 to 60 km/h.
Tonight
The main story tonight will be the winds that’ll remain strong from the west at sustained speeds up to 40 gusting to 60 km/h at times.
The chance of light snow diminishes this evening and clouds will clear out overnight, allowing the mercury to fall back to around -8 or so.
Tuesday
It’ll feel like -15 with wind chill when you head out tomorrow morning, which will definitely feel warm compared to the -41 start we had on Saturday!
Mostly sunny skies should start our day before we get some cloud cover building in later in the afternoon associated with a developing system sliding by south of the area.
As that system brushes by our area it’ll bring a slight chance of snow Tuesday evening.
Winds will ease in the morning and temperatures during the day should push up to around -3 or so, but it’ll feel like mid-minus single digits with wind chill.
Wednesday-Friday
We’ll be in the battle ground between the arctic air to the north and the mild Pacific air to our south for the rest of the week before Christmas.
As such winds will remain breezy and a mix of sun and cloud can be expected through the period with a few more clouds building in on Friday.
We should sit a few degrees below freezing on Wednesday before we get a push of heat ahead of a system on Thursday that could boost us up to the freezing mark before falling back into mid-minus single digits on Friday behind that system.
Christmas Outlook
Arctic air makes its triumphant return just in time for Christmas!
At this point, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are all looking fairly consistent under a mix of sun and cloud and daytime highs in the mid-minus teens and overnight lows settling back into the -20s.
Cam Leslie took this Your Saskatchewan photo of a sundog on Dec. 17 at Lake Diefenbaker:
READ MORE: Get a 2017 Your Saskatchewan calendar today
Saskatoon weather outlook is your one stop shop for all things weather for Saskatoon, central and northern Saskatchewan with a comprehensive look at your local forecast that you can only find here.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.