WHEN -20 FEELS WARM

After a week spent in the bone-chilling deep-freeze, Friday’s -20 felt downright balmy.

However, the break from winter woollies is fleeting. The bitter cold was expected to return Friday night as more Arctic air spilled southeastwards across the region. Extreme cold will likely persist through the weekend. How cold was it? Here’s a look back at the past week’s frosty presence.

Heat

Saskatchewan set a new record three times over as homes and businesses used more natural gas in a single day than ever before.

Saskenergy announced a new record was set between Jan. 13 and Jan. 14 when Saskatchewan used 1.53 petajoules (PJ) of natural gas. Then, between Jan. 14 and 15, the province used 1.54 PJ and, between Jan. 15 and 16, the Crown corporation saw 1.56 PJ used. The previous mark, set in December 2018, was 1.50 petajoules. A petajoule is equivalent to 1 million gigajoules of natural gas. An average Saskatchewan household consumes about 100 gigajoules of gas in a typical year.

Records

Even with temperatures hovering around -35 without wind chill all week, not one day was cold enough to set a new record low for Regina.

Monday: Actual low -32.1; record low -44.4 (1916).

Tuesday: Actual low -33.3; record low -43.3 (1888).

Wednesday: Actual low -36.6; record low -42.8 (1907).

Thursday: Actual low -35.1; record low -40.6 (1885).

Buses

Both Regina Public and Catholic school divisions cancelled all student transportation Thursday morning as wind chill values in parts of Saskatchewan hit -50.

The Prairie Valley School Division, with students in more than 24 communities, also cancelled transportation.

The entire province was under an extreme cold warning, while the wind chill value in Regina hovered around -45. All schools remained open, though scheduled field trips were also cancelled.