It appears that spring has now sprung with a big warm up on the way!
Warm Winter 2016-17
Astronomical spring started on Monday at 4:29 a.m. CST and it’s now starting to feel like the new season, but looking back at winter – it wasn’t very cold at all!
Meteorological winter includes the months of December, January and February and overall it was warmer and drier than normal in Saskatoon.
The city only saw 9 days below -30 this winter, below the average of 14.3 days – but it may have felt like a colder winter because the previous year we only saw 2 days with the mercury falling that far.
Despite the cool start to the season in December that fell slightly below average, the following two months ended up being way warmer than normal.
Overall we were 1.7 degrees warmer than normal this winter.
Breaking the numbers down further, daytime highs were 1.2 degrees above normal and overnight lows being 2.1 degrees above average.
The previous year, Saskatoon had one of the warmest winters on record with temperatures trending 3.7 degrees above average.
It was a dry start to the season with 75 per cent of our normal December precipitation seen and only half of our average amount in January.
February was a bit wetter with almost bang on average for precipitation for the period.
Altogether we saw 72 per cent of our normal precipitation with 26.3 millimetres of rain, melted snow and other forms of precipitation throughout the three-month period when normally we see 36.5 millimetres.
Saskatoon has seen a total of 80 to 90 centimetres of snow from October through to the end of February when our annual normal amount of snow is 90 centimetres.
Saskatoon Forecast
Today
-10 is what it felt like this morning with wind chill in Saskatoon as temperatures dipped back to -5 under partly cloudy skies.
We saw a few more clouds build in by midday as we warmed up to the freezing mark by noon.
Mostly cloudy skies are expected to stick around for the rest of the way as we warm up above freezing to an afternoon high in mid-single digits.
Tonight
Partly to mostly cloudy skies are expected to stick around for the majority of the night as we cool down into mid-minus single digits for an overnight low.
Friday
Minus double digits is what it’ll feel like Friday morning with wind chill under partly to mostly cloudy skies to start the day with a chance of flurries north of Saskatoon to start the day.
Clouds will roll back in during the day as warm air presses its way back in ahead of a low pressure system building into Alberta, which will help warm us up to around 7 degrees for an afternoon high.
Winds will pick back up during the day with gusts upwards of 40 to 50 km/h by evening and a chance of showers overnight.
Weekend
The low pressure system will swing through early in the day on Saturday with a good chance of showers in the morning before clouds clear out later in the day and we warm up to an afternoon high in double digits.
Sunday looks like it’ll be slightly cooler with a daytime high in upper single digit values under a mix of sun and cloud with a very slight chance of a spotty shower.
Work Week Outlook
The work week will start off with daytime highs in high single digits under partly cloudy skies on Monday before clouds and a chance of showers move in on Tuesday and we warm back into double digit daytime highs by mid-week.
Brittany Biberdorf took this Your Saskatchewan photo in Kenaston:
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