The weather on May Long Weekend has been known to be a gamble, and this year is no different.
Scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, Christie Climenhaga, says this year, a high-pressure ridge is building temperatures up across the province, peaking at 28 degrees on Wednesday, and crashing down around 9 degrees for a chilly long weekend.
“Looking at May Long Weekends, you can get temperatures as high as 26 degrees, and you can get them as low as eight degrees or lower. We’ve seen all sorts. We’ve all heard the…’don’t plant your flowers until after May Long Weekend’, cause you never know!”
With these sub-seasonal temperatures also comes a side of rain. If more precipitation is the last thing your region needs, don’t worry. Climenhaga says most of it is expected to fall in north-central Saskatchewan.
“It looks like parts of north-central Saskatchewan will be seeing most of the precipitation, but there are a lot of differences in the amounts. Some models (are) saying ten to twenty (milimetres), some saying a little more, and some saying a lot less, so it’s really hard to pinpoint.”
She adds that there is even a risk of snowfall in the far north. The system is also bringing a fair amount of wind, especially on Thursday, with gusts between 70 and 90 kilometres per hour in the forecast.
“Thursday, I expect very windy conditions widespread across southern Saskatchewan, even if the bulk of the rain is a little bit further north.
Climenhaga adds that there were several rainfall warnings issued for northern Saskatchewan on Saturday.
“Some areas around Lac La Ronge or in the Candle Lake Area. We did see some rainfall in that area. Amounts are pretty variable, but we did see some five to ten milimetre ranges. Some areas getting up to fourteen milimetres.”
Temperatures are expected to rebound closer to seasonal next week, moving up into the high teens and twenties.
