Sask. forecasted to be warmer than normal for the next month

Spring may be just around the corner in Saskatchewan.

Daytime temperatures above freezing this week are a welcome relief from what has been a long, cold winter.

Temperatures in Regina are forecast to hit 8 C by the end of the week, while Saskatoon will see highs of 6 C, Swift Current could hit double digits and even Uranium City will reach a high of –1 C.

Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips says the warm temperatures are just what the doctor ordered — thawing in the daytime and freezing again at night.

"What you want to do is to control the water, the moisture, the snow that you've got," Phillips said. "You'll want it to be kind of an easy melt and that's what we're going to see this week."

The warm weather comes after a particularly cold start to March.

"I think on average it's turned out to be almost 10 degrees colder than it normally would be," Phillips said.

The province's Water Security Agency released its spring runoff outlook on Friday and said that despite significant snow this winter, some areas are still predicted to have normal to below-normal runoff.

But that hasn't stopped farmers from being optimistic.

Lee Moats, a grain farmer near Riceton, southeast of Regina, said moisture levels are much better than they've been the last couple of years.

"We are, I think, blessed this year with considerably more snowfall than we've had in the past few years," Moats said. "So we're looking forward to enough runoff to fill our dugout, which has been a concern in recent years. And also the amount of snow we have should give us real good moisture to start the season."

Lesley Kelly, a grain farmer from Watrous, said moisture levels are good on their farm.

"We have a lot of snow, which is great to see," Kelly said. "So we will have some runoff, which will be good because we'll be able to fill the dugout."

Kelly said they just don't want to see 30 C temperatures and 100 km/h winds during seeding. 

"Last year was extremely difficult," Kelly said. "We went through an extreme drought and we didn't grow much on the farm. We only had about 50 percent production."

Rob Stone, who farms outside of Davidson, said last year was the driest he has seen.

"We have not had lower crop production and are really looking forward to a season this year that's filled with good snow melt that lets us get out into the fields in a proper order by the end of April," Stone said.

"We're also hoping for not too much surface water so that we can continue to farm up and down the fields in a fairly efficient manner."

Phillips said the long-range forecast looks promising too, with normal to above-normal temperatures for the next month.

"I'm not saying that you can write the obituary on winter quite yet," Phillips said, adding Saskatchewan usually gets 20-25 per cent of its annual snowfall over the next few weeks.

"The fresh snow that comes down kind of melts quickly and provides that drink of water to the upper levels of the soil … So that always pleases ranchers and farmers."

LISTEN | Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips spoke with host Stefani Langenegger on The Morning Edition: