Weather extremes gripped Sask. in 2023. Do you remember these events?
Extreme cold, few tornadoes and a snowless fall top the list
Saskatchewan certainly saw its share of extreme andunusual weather eventsin 2023.
Here's a look back at the year that was and a look ahead at what we might see in 2024.
Walking around in a fog
The year started with our atmosphere basically stalling out.
No movement from the jet stream and no major weather systems moving through meant fog developed through much of the province.
By Jan.19, Kindersleyhad reported122 hours with less than a kilometre of visibility. Only 31 hours arerecorded there in an average January.
The fog also created air quality issues in Alberta andresulted in some pretty photos, asrime ice covered trees.
La Nia's lastgasp
Spring started with a blast of winter.
In March, temperatures across the province werebetween 5.5 C and 8 C, below average.
What was perhaps our biggest snowstorm of the year came in the middle of April.
A powerful low pressure system brought a whopping 60 cmtoWeyburnand around 20 cmto Regina.
The late-season cold and snow is not unusual during a La Nia weather pattern like Saskatchewan saw this past winter and the two winters before it.
The pattern forms when temperatures in the Pacific Oceannear the equatordrop below average. The colder air this creates then moves northward into Canada.
From freezing to fires
The cold and snow ended abruptly in May.
Stony Rapids was the first community to hit 30 C mark on May 4. Many other northern communities saw temperatures well above normal.
Early season forest fires causedevacuations in numerous communities,including La Loche twice in the month of May.
It would become a record-breaking forest fire year in the province, with 1.9 million hectares of land burned surpassing the old record of 1.8 million in 2015.
Records were also broken for hours of smoke recorded in communities across the province the highest of which was 900 hours in La Ronge.
Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., saidfires in the boreal forest can burn through winter, especially when they smoulder under peat moss.
He saidpredicting next year's fire seasonis challenging, but ongoing drought on the Prairies and a growing El Nio pattern an opposite pattern to La Nia that's been responsible for warmer and drier weather this fall and winter are "loading the dice."
"This does remind me of 1997," said Flannigan. "And in Alberta in 1997 what followed was a very active fire season in 1998.
"There's a potential for a very active spring."
Drought leads to 'disaster' status
More than 50 rural municipalities in Saskatchewan declared agricultural disasters by August because of drought and grasshoppers.
Despite the dire situationBev Pirio, a vice president with the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said outside of hard-hit areas, it was an average year for farmers.
"Obviously the southwestern portion of the province, they were extremely dry, extremely short of grass and feed for cattle," said Pirio.
"And then we had pockets up by Yorkton that had a hard time getting their crop off because they got a rain shower every day."
Pirio, who farms near Radville, said her own crop turned out better than she expected,whileher neighbours struggled with drought.
"If we don't get moisture before February, we will probably be OK,as long as we get the moisture following that," she said.
She added that cattle farmers and those who planted winter cereal crops need moisture right away.
Shipping crops, she said, should be easier this year thanks to little snow blocking rail lines. The warmer weather is also less harsh on farm equipment and livestock.
Quiet summer storm season
Moisture given off by growing crops andheat from the sun are two key ingredientsforthunderstorms.
But since many crops were stunted by drought and smoke frequently obscured the sun, storms were scarce this summer.
Many believed we were in for another busy storm season when Canada'sfirst tornado of 2023touched down near Regina on May 27, damaging a farm just south of town.
But that was the only tornado that would hit the province a new yearly record low number.
Data from Environment and Climate ChangeCanada (ECCC) also showedSaskatchewan saw its lowest number of July lightning strikes on record.
From La Nia to El Nio
After the warmest May to September period in at least75years, this autumnand the start of winter have been marked by anunusually longperiodof warm weather in Saskatchewan.
It was the warmest December on record for six locations including Regina, Saskatoon and La Ronge and the second warmest forfive others, with monthly temperatures more than 9 C above average in some places.
Regina and Saskatoondidn'tdropbelow -20 C at nightin November orDecember something that usually happensabout 15 times in those two months inbothcities.
Ninety-four high temperature records were broken in December, with Leader breaking its all-time monthlytemperature record of 13.5 C twice hitting 14.8 Con Dec. 5 and 13.8 Con Dec. 22.
The warm weather is largelyattributedto thestrong El Nio patternthat has brought similarconditions to much of Canada so far this winter.
Thepattern has also kept the province dry.Almost everyonesaw below average moisture, with Meadow Lake, La Ronge and Key Lake having their driest Decembers on record.
Saskatoon, which saw its precipitation fallonly as rainin December, has yet to receive any snow.
Regina saw animpressive 27-day stretch in the same monthwith no precipitation reported at its airport the longest consecutive stretch on record.
In its latest update, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a U.S.-based government science and climate agency, says El Nio is likely to continue throughwinter, with a 54 per cent chance of a "historically strong"event.
ECCC's outlook shows a 50 to 60 per cent chance temperatures will remain above normal through February in Saskatchewan.
The NOAA says there's a 60 per cent chance El Nio will transition to a neutral phase between April and June.
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