The recent cold snap in Saskatchewan appears to be replaced with milder weather. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

no more deep freeze

Mild January weather to continue in Saskatchewan

Jan 9, 2023 | 12:00 PM

In the early stages of January, most Saskatchewan residents brace themselves for a bout of extreme cold weather. This year, however, we braced ourselves and that weather simply doesn’t seem to be coming.

What has already been a milder January that sits almost exactly on the average for temperatures on a daily basis appears perfectly content to just sit in the current levels of coldness and not budge. Most Saskatchewan residents would be perfectly content with that, too.

“We seem to have gotten all the really cold weather out of our system in December,” Terri Lang, regional meteorologist with Environment Canada, said. “It was a very cold month. But into (January) we’ve been running sort of slightly above average for this time of year and that looks set to continue.”

Extreme cold warnings for Prince Albert and area came down in December, with temperatures dropping into the -35 C range, and January often is the colder of the two months. This year, that hasn’t been the case.

“Around the second to third week of January, that’s when our average temperatures bottom out,” Lang said. “We call it the dead of winter. After about the third week of January, those averages start to go up. I think that’s why everybody expects the really cold air to be around in January.”

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The downside of this weather setting in is twofold: one, it appears the grey skies will persist, so don’t expect to see a ton of sunshine over the next week or so. The other downside is the late-January warm-up we often get (which Lang referred to as a bonspiel thaw) might not come either.

“The jet stream is weak in the North in parts of Canada,” Lang said. “Most of the energy is getting directed to California and parts of the Oregon coast. B.C. will start seeing a little more in the way of action and that usually puts us in a sort of westerly flow in the upper atmosphere. That usually gives us near seasonal temperatures or slightly above seasonal temperatures.”

Bizarrely, according to Lang, this mild weather seems to be the new normal for January in Saskatchewan. The downside of this: ice on the roads forms more easily.

“We get that low cloud and that freezing fog that comes along and gives us all the beautiful pictures but the slightly dangerous rime icing,” Lang said. “That can really grease up the roads and make them quite slippery.”

Lang added the systems that would normally bring cold or snow are being deflected either north or south so far in the New Year.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP