Extreme cold, snowfall warnings today in Sask., but warming up for Christmas
Up to 20 cm of snow expected in some areas
There are extreme cold and snowfall warnings over various parts of the province on Wednesday morning.
A ridge of high pressure is centred right over the province, which means extreme cold warnings are hitting cities like Meadow Lake through Saskatoon, Humboldt area and down toward Yorkton.
The worst of the cold weather is set to happen over the course of a couple of hours in the morning, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Chris Stammers.
"Currently [I'm] seeing temperatures kind of flirting with that -40 C wind chill, which is our criteria for extreme cold over southern Saskatchewan," Stammers said.
The coldest wind chill temperature Wednesday morning was Meadow Lake, which saw a low of -42 C.
Saskatchewan's largest city, Saskatoon, was at -28 C, but Stammers said the airport wasn't reporting any wind, making it not quite as bad as other areas in the province.
He estimates the extreme cold warning to only last a few hours in the morning.
"I would think by noon, most of them will be able to be ended," Stammers said.
"We are seeing cloud cover start to increase over the southwestern regions right now and that'll warm things up enough to put an end to the extreme cold."
Snowfall warnings
Snowfall warning — stretching South of the extreme cold warnings — are also in effect, impacting locations across the province like Kindersley, Moose Jaw, Regina and Estevan area.
Stammers said the snowfall will pick up throughout the morning, moving from in from the southwest, but major cities like Saskatoon won't see that snow until the afternoon, similar to other cities eastward like Humboldt and Yorkton.
Regina will get the snow a little earlier around noontime.
The heaviest of the snowfall is expected Wednesday night, with Kindersley and Moose Jaw to feel the brunt of that storm.
"We'll see improving conditions on Thursday, it'll move out pretty quick."
According to the Environment Canada website, the snow will be heavy at certain points and with a widespread 10 cm expected, but "pockets of up to 20 cm are also possible, especially from Kindersley to Moose Jaw to Estevan."
Christmas forecast
Stammers said highway travel could be less-than-ideal for Wednesday to Thursday, but weekend travel should be good for drivers.
Other than a "weak system" that will move through on late Friday into Saturday, maybe bringing a little snow, Stammers said it should be that bad.
"The good news is there'll be some warming coming in for the weekend and even warmer weather next week for Christmas, so it looks like a nice stretch after this system."
Stammers said there are strong signals for a very strong warming trend coming in for Christmas day.
"We're looking at single digit highs, possibly approaching the freezing mark by Christmas."
He said normally around Christmas time temperatures hit around -10 C or colder, but this time around it's expected to be 10 degrees above normal.