Goodbye fall, hello winter weather

After a mild end to October, November has blown in with a fury andIt looks like the wintry weather is here to stay.

Althoughbelow-season temperatures for the first two weeks October meant the month was was technically colder than normal across most of the province, the back half of the month was generally mild.

October 17 and 18 saw temperatures jump into the 20s across southern Saskatchewan. The warm weather held on right until Halloween.

Now, as we head into the first full week of November, the weather has taken a turn. A cold arctic air mass will set in this week, dropping temperatures to the high minus single digits for most regions thanks to the jet stream.

An upper level low pressure system will create a large trough in the upper atmosphere, pulling colder-than-normal temperatures into the prairies.

Daily maximum temperatures will be around minus-8 C in Regina and Saskatoon until Friday. Those temperatures are more typical of mid-December in southern Saskatchewan, as opposed to early November.

It looks like we will be in the deep freeze for a while. Below-seasonal temperatures look to last through the weekend, with most weather models calling for a warm-up next week.