Saskatchewan

School buses cancelled around Sask.

A number of school divisions around Saskatchewan say they won't have their buses running Wednesday because it's too cold.

Several school divisions around Saskatchewan say they won't have buses running Wednesday because it's too cold.

School buses cancelled?

If school bus service has been cancelled in your division today, send CBC an email. We'll put the update on our website.

In Saskatoon, where temperatures were in the mid- to high-minus-30 range, all school buses in St. Paul's Catholic school system and the public school system were cancelled, a spokesperson for the school bus company First Student said.

The Saskatoon public school system has said its buses are generally cancelled if the wind chill values hit -45 C or lower — and it was below that around 6 a.m. CST.

Four other Saskatchewan school divisions said on their websites at 6 a.m. that buses were cancelled for the day.

They include:

  • Prairie South
  • Prairie Spirit
  • Saskatchewan Rivers
  • Sun West

In addition, École Monseigneur de Laval and Luther High Schools in Regina also cancelled buses Wednesday. Other Regina school buses are running, however. Moose Jaw buses were running as well, CBC was told.

Relief coming by weekend

Arctic air has settled in over Saskatchewan, and wind chill values were in the extreme range again Wednesday morning.

Lloydminster and Melfort showed wind chill values of -48 early in the morning, as strong winds combined with temperatures in the -33 range.

There were extreme wind chill warnings across almost the entire province Wednesday morning, with the far north being the exception. 

Environment Canada warned that exposed skin could freeze in five to ten minutes when the wind chill values reached the mid-minus-40s.

The extreme cold is forecast to continue until the weekend, with high wind chills again on Thursday in both Regina and Saskatoon, before temperatures begin to moderate on Friday.

Both cities are expected to see temperatures back in the minus single digits by Saturday and Sunday.