Prairies: From winter coats to summer shorts and windstorm potential

Did you scrape your car Saturday morning, Regina, Sask.? Did your furnace kick in?

Fall is about to live up to its reputation for the hours ahead, with a strong temperature fluctuation in store across the Prairies. Damaging winds are also looking likely across Alberta as a powerful cold front crosses the province Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning lows reported:

• Prince Albert: -3.8 C

• Meadow Lake: -3.1 C

• Brandon: -2.9 C

• Regina: -1.8 C

This morning's lows aren’t that far from seasonal values, but the forecast daytime highs are a different story.

An extreme contrast existed with a much milder air mass across southwestern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta.

While Prince Alberta was -4 C, Linden, Alta., about an hour's drive northeast of Calgary, was nearly 18 C on Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon:

• Prince Albert: 17 C

• Saskatoon: 21 C

• Regina: 21 C

What goes up must come down

Although central Alberta is featuring mild temperatures in the warm sector of a low, a sharp cold front will be tracking through later this afternoon into the evening hours, causing temperatures to come crashing down.

Temperatures may plunge up to 10 C in a single hour across central Alberta during late Saturday afternoon.

The front will be associated with very strong westerly winds, with gusts up to 90-100 km/h across central and southern Alberta (localized damage possible) as the deepening low lifts into northern Saskatchewan.

Gusts of 70-80 km/h are possible across Saskatchewan through Saturday night.

Temperatures will be exceptionally warm for mid-October through southeast Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba, largely remaining in the double digits--a far cry from Saturday morning.

Thumbnail courtesy of Getty Images/Vera Petrunina/1191394418-170667a.