Sarah Mills: Teachers deserve gratitude as school year wraps up
There's a collective sigh coming from Saskatchewan's teachers as the school year ends. Sarah Mills says teachers are ask...
A topsy-turvy spring doesn’t even begin to explain the wild ride of weather the Prairies have seen these last few months.
Spring started off strong with hotter than usual temperatures in early May, and it also brought a lack of rain and drought for many areas.
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- Drought support for farmers coming from provincial, federal governments
- Hail the size of golf balls hammers Lumsden, denting vehicles and cracking windows
That heat only helped to fuel an unprecedented wildfire season, causing many of the northern boreal forests to be threatened by the flames.
Many of those fires were able to be put under control thanks to some rain over the last few weeks of June.
Now, entering the Canada Day long weekend, the Prairies have gotten all of spring mashed into the last few days of June.
David Phillips, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the province has already seen a “shocking” amount of tornadoes.
“We’ve had very few in Canada this year — 22 — but over half of those have been in Saskatchewan,” he said.
“They’re little guys; they’re EF-0s … winds would be 100 to maybe about 135 km/h. But, my gosh, there were eight in one day,” said Phillips.
EF-0 is the weakest rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which is used to measure the intensity of wind damage.
Phillips said that the weather for Canada Day long weekend is looking promising.
“It’s a perfect 10 if you like your weather sunny and warm, but not hot, hot, hot,” he said.
“We could see temperatures that could get up to 30 C, or 28 or 29, so it’s a great time for heading out to the campsite or to the cottage or beaching, or whatever you want to do, just even staying at home. It looks pretty comfortable,” said Phillips.
As for what the summer could look like in 2025, Phillips said that it could be warmer than normal.
“We said June, July, and August were going to be warmer than normal. Well, we’re now going with July, August, and September as being warmer than normal. We’re not changing our script. We think that that is the flavour of the summer,” said Phillips.
He says that with the heat, the province could see a lack of rain and an increase in lightning.
“In Saskatchewan, you get almost 700,000 lightning strikes in an average year,” he said.
“When you get the heat and humidity of July and August, that’s where most of them strike. I mean, they don’t always strike where you are but … they can start a fire, or they can cause an injury. And so we always have to be aware of the weather,” said Phillips.
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