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Has the climate in Saskatoon changed?

Saskatoon has warmed about 1.3°F between 1971 and 2011.

About 0.3°F per decade, measured from Saskatoon's official daily weather records, 1971–2011. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Saskatoon's warming is broadly in line with other cities in Canada — neither unusually fast nor unusually slow.

What has actually changed

Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span the headline and the chart use.

Freezing nights
6 more nights
1970s
198 / yr
Recent
204 / yr
Colder winters — more frosts
Average temperature
+1.1°F
1970s
35.5°F
Recent
36.6°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
about the same
1970s
5 / yr
Recent
5 / yr
About the same number of heat days
Rainy days
19 fewer days
1970s
118 / yr
Recent
99 / yr
Drier on average

Saskatoon's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2011.

30°32°34°36°38°40°42°1971: 33.9°F1972: 32.5°F1973: 36.0°F1974: 34.8°F1975: 34.1°F1976: 37.7°F1977: 36.7°F1978: 34.8°F1979: 34.1°F1980: 36.7°F1981: 40.4°F1982: 33.0°F1983: 36.5°F1984: 37.5°F1985: 34.7°F1986: 38.3°F1987: 41.2°F1988: 38.4°F1989: 35.6°F1990: 36.5°F1991: 37.6°F1992: 38.1°F1993: 35.5°F1994: 35.5°F1995: 34.6°F1996: 31.1°F1997: 36.7°F1998: 38.5°F1999: 38.1°F2000: 35.7°F2001: 38.8°F2002: 35.5°F2003: 36.8°F2004: 35.7°F2005: 37.1°F2006: 38.1°F2007: 36.0°F2008: 35.1°F2009: 34.1°F2010: 37.5°F2011: 37.3°Flong-term trend197119801990200020102011
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year

Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones. Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope, not a straight climb.

When in the year the change shows up

How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s. Useful if you garden or care about a particular season — otherwise the headline above already has the answer.

-2.0°-1.5°-1.0°-0.5°0.0°+0.5°+1.0°+1.5°+2.0°+2.5°January: +2.0°F+2.0JFebruary: +0.2°F+0.2FMarch: -0.5°F-0.5MApril: +0.3°F+0.3AMay: -1.6°F-1.6MJune: -1.1°F-1.1JJuly: -0.2°F-0.2JAugust: -0.1°F-0.1ASeptember: +1.1°F+1.1SOctober: -0.9°F-0.9ONovember: +1.7°F+1.7NDecember: +2.3°F+2.3D

December has warmed the most — about 2.3°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 21 years of daily observations at Saskatoon Diefenbaker Int'l A, a weather station, about 5 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →