The extreme cold warnings that were in effect for much of Saskatchewan on Thursday have been lifted.
The only areas still under the Environment Canada warnings were around Lloydminster, The Battlefords, Unity, Maidstone and St. Walburg.
Earlier Thursday, every region in the province was under an extreme cold warning.
The agency said three communities in the province — Elbow (-37.3 C, breaking the previous mark of -37.2 C in 1962), Meadow Lake (-40.7 C; old record was -39.4 C in 1962) and Wynyard (-37.5 C; previous record was -36.2 C in 1978) — set temperature records Thursday morning.
Prince Albert was the provincial cold spot, dipping to -42 C. However, that did not break the 1907 mark of -45 C.
Regina reached -35.1 C, more than five degrees warmer than its record of -40.6 C. And Saskatoon got down to -39.3 C, but that was four degrees warmer than its record of -43.3 C.
The extreme cold weather Thursday cancelled several school bus routes in and around Regina, Moose Jaw and the province’s southern regions.
SaskEnergy sets a record
SaskEnergy revealed Thursday that the daily natural gas consumption in the province during the cold snap has broken the previous usage record three times this week.
The previous mark of 1.50 PetaJoules (PJ) was set in December of 2018 and matched in February of 2019. SaskEnergy said 1.53 PJ were used in Saskatchewan from 9 a.m. Monday to 9 a.m. Tuesday, 1.54 PJ were consumed from 9 a.m. Tuesday to 9 a.m. Wednesday, and 1.56 PJ were used from 9 a.m. Wednesday to 9 a.m. Thursday.
SaskEnergy said a PetaJoule equals one million GigaJoules (GJ). The average home in the province consumes about 100 GJ of natural gas each year.