Record heat waves in August across Saskatchewan

It’s no secret temperatures have been hot as of late on the prairies, and on Thursday, a 93-year temperature record was broken in the Queen City.

Temperatures in Regina reaches as high as 35.6 C, marking the hottest Sept. 1 since 1929.

“In Regina the normal for this time of year is a daytime high of about 21 degrees Celsius,” said Sara Hoffman, a meteorologist with Environment Canada. “And with over 35 degrees Celsius being the daytime max that we recorded yesterday, we have temperatures almost 15 degrees above normal for this time of year.”

Regina was one of eight locations in Saskatchewan to set a temperature record Thursday, including Broadview, Last Mountain Lake, Lucky Lake, Maple Creek, Rockglen, Watrous and Wynard.

Hoffman said in total, Saskatchewan has set 34 records across the province in August for maximum temperature.

As a whole, August in Regina has been recorded as the seventh-warmest August in 126 years of data. In Saskatoon, it was recorded as the ninth warmest in 126 years, while Swift Current recorded its sixth-warmest August on record.

“A number of sites have a very, very long history and so over history, this August 2022 certainly will go down as a memorably hot summer,” she said.

With a forecast of above-average temperatures throughout next week, it is sure to be warm this Labour Day weekend. And while warm temperatures normally mean the arrival of thunderstorms, Hoffman doesn’t expect that to be the case this time.

“It looks to be pretty quiet and that’s what we expect with these stagnant upper ridges of hot air,” Hoffman said. “We actually are so hot and there is a lot of descending air over an area. It doesn’t allow for that rapid vertical growth that we need for thunderstorms.

So we’re kind of just expecting this hot and muggy weather to persist for the next little while without much reprieve from that.”

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