Thanks to the brutal strength of a continual arctic ridge this February is on pace to be the second coldest on record. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Ronald Quaroni

Wacky weather

Ruthless arctic ridge remains

Feb 25, 2019 | 12:00 PM

Just when you think the weather has to warm up, the thermometer refuses to budge.

Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada said this February has been extremely cold and next month doesn’t have a good outlook.

“Our longer range computer models, indicate below normal temperatures persisting right through the month of March and moving into April,” Proctor said.

If you’re looking to blame something, Proctor said a constant arctic ridge is responsible for the unusually prolonged bout of chilly weather.

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“It’s a very strong ridge of high pressure, it’s really hard to move arctic air; it’s a very dense cold air mass. So we have to get a lot of wind to push it away,” Proctor said.

All these cold temperatures have started to add up.

Proctor said the coldest February Prince Albert experienced was back in 1936, with an average temperature of -27.3 degrees Celsius.

“The mean monthly temperature up till the middle of last week in the P.A. area was -27.0 degrees [Celsius] which puts it as the second coldest February to that point in 133 years of data,” he said.

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ron.quaroni@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @RonaldQuaroni