January expected to be milder than December: Environment Canada

After a brutally cold December, you’ve probably noticed it has warmed up quite a bit recently.

David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada, said things will be better this month.

“We’re thinking that January is going to be very different than December,” Phillips told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Monday. “It’s not balmy. It’s not going to be Hawaiian kind of temperatures, but look at this week: We see a lot of days with single-digit temperatures. These are like three, five, six, eight degrees warmer than they should be for this time of the year.

“But this week is an important week coming up. The definition of this week is ‘the dead of winter.’ This is the halfway point. So finish this week and it looks very sunny and also sunny temperatures. You get a high of -5 and in the sunshine, you can feel that heat from the intensity of the sun.”

According to Phillips, we’ll be gaining two extra minutes of sunshine every day this week and in a month, that’ll be around four more minutes a day.

“This ‘dead of winter’ (term) means there’s more winter behind you than ahead of you, so it’s a hurrah time …” Phillips said.

“December was tough and you’ve had it. December may very well be the coldest month of the winter. We’re seeing January is looking like it’s going to be seasonable to warmer than normal. Now, will the cold make a comeback? Well, I would bet on that. But when it comes back, it’ll be shorter in duration and not as intensely cold.”

Phillips said Saskatchewan dealt with arctic air last month and now warm Pacific air has made its way into Saskatchewan.

“Arctic air (has some) moisture in it, but it’s bone dry,” Phillips said. “That’s what you say: ‘At least it’s a dry cold.’ That’s because of the arctic air. When you get the source region coming from the Pacific, there’s a lot more moisture.”

According to Phillips, the “beautiful winter wonderland look” we’re seeing comes from the air being more humid than usual.

The warmer air will remain for much of the month.

“(In) December, it was cold, especially the 10 days before Christmas. Then right after, it went from wild to mild. It was really quite decent,” Phillips said.

“I remember one day you had -30 for a high — I think it was the 20th of December. A week later, the high was +2. You had your January thaw there at the end of December and it really has carried that way on through.”