Southern Sask. blasted with another heat wave, Coronach and Assiniboia lead nation with daily highs
It was another brutally hot summer day throughout Saskatchewan. In the province's south – the communities of Assiniboia and Coronach both spent time as Canada's hotspots on Wednesday.
'We're seeing a hot air mass that we've kind of seen tracking from west to east,' explained Crawford Luke, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
'Yesterday, for example, we had some record temperatures set around the Calgary area. So that same hot air mass is kind of moved east, into Saskatchewan today.'
In Assiniboia, the daily high was recorded as 35.4 C, while Coronach hit 37.5 C in the afternoon.
According to Luke, the landscape can be a big influence when analyzing how heat can be trapped in southern Saskatchewan.
'When we start thinking of more of like a dirt or rock landscape versus like a grass or forest landscape, those can get quite a bit hotter,' he said.
'If you think of a place like the badlands, say in Grasslands National Park, along the Frenchman River Valley, for example, those are places that we know can get pretty hot.'
During these blistering days, the City of Regina reminds residents of its splash pads and cooling stations scattered around the city.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority is also reminding residents to keep an eye out for signs of heat stroke and heat exhaustion when temperatures rocket skyward this summer.
Temperatures are expected to drop in the coming days, putting most of the province back in its seasonal range, ahead of more sunshine this weekend.
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