Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
While the hottest day of the summer may have already come and gone, temperatures in Regina are expected to stay above normal for months.
David Philips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada, joined The Greg Morgan Morning Show on 980 CJME on Monday to discuss the weather the Queen City has seen this summer and what’s in the forecast for the weeks ahead.
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According to Phillips, roughly a third of the days in July saw temperatures above 30 C. He said Regina’s hottest day of the entire year so far was recorded back on May 28, when temperatures reached 35 C.
With a summer heat often counted by the number of hot days, Phillips said Regina has been warmer than usual.
He said the city has already had 16 days reach above 30 C this year, which is twice the annual average of eight.
Listen to the full interview with Phillips:
“You certainly have had, so far, twice as many as you normally would get,” Phillips said.
While August won’t be quite so warm, with temperatures expected to be cooler than July, Phillips said summer’s not over yet, and those 30 C days will still happen.
It’s not just Regina that’s had a hot summer in 2026. According to Phillips, it’s been hot and dry across the country, and the trend is also holding true in other parts of the world.
“I look at the number of countries that have broken records for this year, and normally you get maybe one heat dome in Europe. They’ve had one in May, June, a couple in July, and now one in August,” he said.
Along with the widespread heat, Phillips said there’s been little to no precipitation, causing everything to dry out. He said that creates the righr conditions for wildfires to spread, like the ones seen in B.C. right now.
Regina’s above-average temperatures aren’t just a summer phenomenon, the climatologist added.
“We’re going to see a fall that’s not so bad – warmer – and we could continue right to the end of the year and next year,” Phillips said.
Beyond the heat, this summer in Saskatchewan has also been marked by some, “wild weather,” Phillips added.
On the weekend of July 11 and 12, there were at least eight confirmed tornadoes in the province, and some estimates reached as high as 15.
There have been 34 tornadoes confirmed across Saskatchewan this summer, Phillips said. It’s a record-high number, with a month and a half still to go of the season.
While some of this summer’s tornadoes have been small, “nevertheless, they’re touchdowns,” Phillips said.
