Warmer fall and tame winter ahead in Saskatchewan: Climatologist

Saskatchewan can expect a warmer-than-normal fall and a slow start to winter this year, according to Environment Canada’s senior climatologist.

During an appearance on The Greg Morgan Morning Show on Tuesday, David Phillips said September will almost feel like an extension of the summer, with the next three months expected to be warmer than normal.

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“It’s fall warmth – compared to other falls, not compared to July and August. We’re not going to bring back all that kind of heat,” he said.

“What we describe as normal in September is always a little cooler.”

Listen to the full interview with Phillips:

Phillips said temperatures in September typically five or six degrees cooler than August.

“You might have your first snowfall before Remembrance Day, but my gosh, there’s a lot to be said about harvest time and kids going back to school,” he said.

Phillips noted that September, October and November of 2025 represented the warmest fall on record in Saskatchewan, with temperatures above 30 C recorded during five days in September.

“People were putting away their muscle shirts and tank tops, and my gosh, you should have kept them going, because it was absolutely quite beautiful,” the climatologist said.

Phillips said climate change is shifting fall temperatures in Saskatchewan, with the past five falls among the 10 warmest in 80 years of record keeping.

“There’s something about a wintry-like fall that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards very much anymore,” he said.

“When you look at the last few years, the one season that has been absolutely glorious in the prairies and in Saskatchewan has been the fall.”

Phillips said this year will bring the “Godzilla of El Niños,” which should translate to a mild winter.

“This warm water in the Pacific, what does it do to Saskatchewan? Well, in the wintertime it typically gives you a winter that is what our ancestors would call a soft, open and rather a tame kind of a winter,” he explained.

“We’ve never cancelled winter in Saskatchewan, but boy, this one’s going to seem more Pacific than Arctic, I think.”

The predictions for the fall and winter come after a record-breaking tornado season this summer in Saskatchewan, with 36 twisters confirmed to have touched down as of Sept. 1.

“It was kind of a rip-roaring, twisting kind of a summer season,” Phillips said.

The climatologist noted that the summer also started early this season, with warm weather hitting some areas in May. There were 19 days with temperatures above 30 C in Regina over the summer, he said, and June saw 80 per cent more rain than normal for the province.