Skin can freeze in minutes tomorrow with wind chills between -40 and -50 as the polar vortex moves back in.
Extreme Cold Warning
Environment Canada has issued an extreme cold warning for the city of Saskatoon and all of central and southern Saskatchewan for a period of very cold wind chills expected.
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An arctic high pressure ridge will bring cold temperatures near -30 Tuesday night, which, combined with winds of 10 to 15 km/h, will produce extreme wind chills of -40 or colder.
These extreme cold conditions are expected to modify over Saskatchewan Wednesday morning.
Extreme cold warning are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia.
More extreme cold conditions are likely on Thursday morning.
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Saskatoon Forecast
Tuesday
Light snow tapered off around 5 a.m. CT and clouds cleared shortly after, earlier than anticipated, so temperatures quickly fell back to -31 by 9 a.m. with wind chill values making it feel like -43 to start.
After a few fog patches, sunshine returned to the city into the early afternoon with the mercury rising up to -26 by noon.
A few more clouds moved in later in the day with some light snow as temperatures pushed up further into the -20s.
Tuesday Night
Those clouds cleared out in the evening as an arctic high pushed in south of the region, helping cool temperatures into the mid -30s.
Wednesday
Mid -40s is what it’ll feel like with wind chill Wednesday morning under mostly clear skies, meaning your skin can freeze in a matter of minutes, so be sure to bundle up as you head out.
A low pressure system will push in tomorrow and build in the clouds and a chance of flurries in the afternoon and early evening.
Saskatoon is expected to briefly tap into some warm air associated with the system that’ll be mixed down by southwesterly winds at sustained speeds into the 30 km/h range with gusts upwards of 50 to 60 km/h at times.
Temperatures should top out in the mid-minus teens in the afternoon, but it’ll feel like the mid -20s with the wind chill during the afternoon thanks to the strong winds.
Then behind the system we’ll cool quickly in the evening as a cold front sweeps through, dropping us back into extreme cold warning criteria overnight.
Thursday-Friday
Extreme cold will have returned by Thursday morning with temperatures back in the mid -30s and wind chills in the -40 to -50 range once again to start.
Mostly sunny skies will stick around through the day with an afternoon high in the mid -20s expected, but it’ll feel like the -30s all day with wind chill.
Warmer air starts to push in on Friday under mostly sunny skies with an afternoon high returning back into the mid-minus teens.
Weekend Outlook
The warming continues this weekend with an upper ridge of high pressure helping to displace the arctic air.
Partly to mostly sunny skies are expected with an afternoon high pushing up close to minus single digit territory on Saturday and then moving into mid-minus single digits to end off the weekend on Sunday before pushing up toward the freezing mark early next week.
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