Heat warning expected for most of Saskatchewan

There is a special weather statement out for most of the province as we brace for a heat wave to sweep through the prairies.

Temperatures well above normal are expected to be felt and they aren’t expected to start cooling off until the weekend.

Environment Canada meteorologist Robyn Dyke says the current weather system that is in Alberta won’t take long to get to Saskatchewan.

“We started with a special weather statement to kind of give the idea that there is a heat wave coming and as we get closer to the event, which will be Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll be putting out warnings in specific locations that we are more confident will hit those exact temperature thresholds and warmer,” Dyke said.

The heat warning threshold that would trigger a warning for places like Saskatoon and Regina is 32 C — something that both cities will be flirting with for the rest of the week.

“We’re almost 10 degrees above normal so that’s obviously going to have impacts on people out there,” Dyck said. “for Saskatchewan, it’s mainly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we have to look out for.

“We just know for sure that it’s going to get hot.”

Despite the heat, Dyck is unsure if records will be broken in either Saskatoon or Regina but she didn’t rule out record-breaking heat elsewhere in the province.

“There won’t be a ton of records, maybe there’ll be a one-off or something,” she said. “It is summer in the prairies, so we always need to expect these types of temperatures.”

People are being encouraged to keep an eye out for heat warnings and to make sure they are hydrated, wearing sunscreen and spending shorter periods of time outside.