Where are the cool temps coming from?
Blame cloudy skies and a stubborn mass of cool Manitoba air for Saskatoon temperatures lingering around 10 C below average.
“Without the sun out, you need some really warm air moving into the province to get those temperatures up to the 15 C mark,” Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist John Paul Cragg said.
“Right now we’ve got a predominantly easterly wind where air is moving in from Manitoba instead of from down in the southern states, and it’s just not a warm air mass.”
Wednesday was forecast to hit a high of 4 C. The average high for April 26 is 14.1 C.
Temperatures should slowly rise into the weekend, but over the next two weeks will hover between average and below average, Cragg said.
“We just don’t have that southerly flow of air that we need really to warm ourselves up.”
The colder air mass has moved into the central and western states, with northern Texas sitting at just 7 C.
The warm air is in the east, heating Chicago up to a balmy 23 C — not even close to Saskatchewan, Cragg said.
On the bright side, it could always be worse. Paulatuk, NWT had a temperature of -18 C.
April has historically brought Saskatoon temperatures ranging from -28.3 C to 33.3 C, a difference of more than 60 degrees, Cragg noted.
“April is a month where you can see these massive fluctuations, so it’s not odd to see below or above average temperatures this time of year.”