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Few in Saskatchewan have experienced a February like the one of 2021.
Environment Canada’s senior climatologist David Phillips has declared that if the calendar were to flip Thursday, it would have been one of the coldest on record.
“So you’re not imagining it. People can’t remember it being this brutally cold for so long in February,” Phillips said.
How cold has it been?
Phillips said 31 days of freezing temperatures will have elapsed since late January.
However, conditions are expected to get warmer thanks to a Pacific weather system that will blow warm air across the prairies.
“The polar vortex, that dreaded cold air mass that has caused misery, hardship and misfortune across all of North America is finally going home,” Phillips said.
In both Regina and Saskatoon, daytime highs will reach the minus-single digits on Friday and Saturday. They are forecasted to rise above the freezing mark at the start of next week, if only for a while.
“That beautiful Saskatchewan sun is going to add more degrees of heat to it because we measure temperature in the shade,” Phillips said.
980 CJME spoke with people spending time outside Friday, all of whom were excited about the warming trend.
Treena Kraft was walking through Victoria Park in Regina, and still found it chilly at about -12 C with a -22 wind chill.
Still, she’s staying optimistic.
“February is my cabin fever time. Regardless of COVID and the cold, I just want winter to be done with,” she said.
“We had a really good winter up until about two weeks ago, so I guess you can’t really complain. But we will, because that’s what we do.”
Haylee Schofield goes for walks in Wascana Park with her grandma a few times a week, but the recent cold snap has made it very difficult.
“I’m glad to be able to walk outside and not feel like I’m going to freeze to death,” she said.
John Walker took a walk Friday. He also stayed positive about the overall temperatures we’ve seen this winter.
“It’s a nice break from the frozen tundra that we’ve been in it. It’s welcomed in February, but we can’t really complain. We haven’t had too bad of a winter.”
As daylight increases by about three minutes daily, Phillips is forecasting a warmer-than-seasonal March.
“Not July-warm, but more kind of what you’d expect in March,” he said.
“It doesn’t look like the polar vortex is going to come back so really, you could write the obituary on the worst kind of winter.”
Editor’s note: The article previously stated February was the coldest in 85 years. Its been corrected to reflect that had February ended Thursday, it would have been the coldest.