Fall-like weather to resume after ‘wild’ October
REGINA Saskatchewan’s October weather was like two months in one — and backwards.
While wacky fall weather on the Prairies isn’t unusual, Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips said the contrast between the first half of the month and the second was “truly wild.”
According to him, Saskatchewan had 50 hours with snow in the first 15 days of October and none after that. There were two days with double-digit temperatures during the day in the first weeks of the month and 12 in the last two weeks.
If afternoon temperatures in the first half of the month continued throughout, it would have been the coldest October in about 94 years, Phillips said.
However, extending the afternoon temperatures from the last two weeks of the month would have made it the warmest on record.
“I would have bet … that that would have been the opposite in terms of, the warmest would come at the first two weeks and the coldest at the last two weeks. And it was just the total reverse,” Phillips said.
But the weirdness won’t be making any history books. When you crunch all the numbers, Phillips said, it masks what happened. Saskatchewan’s precipitation was very close to normal and overall October temperatures evened out to about 1.5 degrees lower than the average.
“People will ignore this month in years to come, but if you lived through it — my gosh,” Phillips said.
What surprised meteorologists around the world, he said, was that the high-pressure system responsible for the chilly start to fall stayed around for so long.
When it finally left, it was replaced by a different high-pressure system that pumped warm, southerly air into the western part of Canada.
With the Saskatchewan Roughriders set to host a home playoff game either Nov. 11 or 18, what can Rider Nation expect weather-wise?
“All good things must come to an end,” Phillips said, adding there’s an expected cool-down over the next two weeks.
But, “I don’t think you necessarily write the obituary on summerlike weather,” Phillips said, adding we can expect more fall-like days with weather around 2 C.