2016 was the third warmest year on record in Saskatoon, Regina, North Battleford and Estevan.
When averaging all 366 days from the past year, due to a leap year, temperatures sat at 4.3 degrees in Saskatoon when our normal average annual temperature is 2.6 degrees.
So overall, the Bridge City was 1.7 degrees warmer than normal in 2016.
Regina saw temperatures 2 degrees warmer than normal, making it the third warmest year on record as well.
2016 was the second warmest year ever recorded in Yorkton and the fourth hottest in Prince Albert, Meadow Lake and Swift Current.
El Niño kept Saskatoon way warmer than normal for the first half of the year.
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READ MORE: Flooding, tornadoes highlight Saskatchewan’s weather during 2016
In fact, the only months that were below average during the year were August, October and December.
The city only saw three days when the mercury fell below -30 degrees when normally we see 13 days.
The coldest day of 2016 was on Jan. 16 when the temperature fell to -37.1.
Extreme heat above 30 degrees was only felt three times and all in May and June, when normally the mercury rises above that threshold 14 days in a year.
The warmest day was on May 4 when we saw the mercury shoot up to 32.6 degrees.
Throughout the year, Saskatoon saw a total of 339.9 millimetres of rain, melted snow and mixed precipitation, when normally the city receives 353.7 millimetres.
Despite that only being 96 per cent of our normal precipitation, there were significant dumps in August when over one-and-a-half times the normal precipitation fell and over two times average in October with the early season snowfall.
READ MORE: Saskatoon surpasses 100-year-old snowfall record
In terms of severe weather, Saskatchewan saw slightly fewer than normal tornadoes, with only 14 touching down in the province – below the average of 18 twisters annually.
This is still much higher than 2015 when only two tornadoes were reported in Saskatchewan.
READ MORE: 2016 Saskatchewan tornado tally
Flood forecasters are calling for a good chance of significant flooding in 2017 with high soil moisture content heading into winter with another deep freeze in the forecast into mid-January.
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