I enjoy living in Saskatoon.
Throwing Water into the Air on a Cold Day
Once the temperature gets below -30, you can do stuff like this.
Skating in the Streets 2016 Spring
The streets were bad. I thought I could probably skate on them. It turned out that I could.
Graders on my Street 2013
The ice on the streets was about a foot thick, with ruts deep enough so that regular cars were getting high-sided when they fell into a rut. Then the city decided to do something about it and brought in some graders. These guys were impressive to watch. I can’t believe all the things they have to adjust at once. Eventually one of them broke and blade and was retired for the day so that it could be welded back together.
Saskatoon
Saskatoon can get quite cold… People up here tend to discuss the weather. We have fairly dramatic seasonal changes. In winter, the temperature drops to below -40 degrees C., while in summer, it rises to +40 degrees C (that’s -40 to +105 degrees F).
It is -30 degrees in this picture. The only reason that there is any open water is because there is a power plant upstream, which exhausts a lot of heat into the river. Just for a lark, I have taken a canoe out twice in this weather. At this temperature, the paddles get thicker and thicker as the ice accumulates on them. The hull of the canoe gets sheathed in a layer of ice almost a 1/4 of an inch thick. You don’t want to fall in…
The hoar frost can be remarkable. I have seen chain link fences become solid as the frost completely fills in the gaps.
The weather can be extremely pleasant in the summer though… This is Sandy sitting with Keiran on the river bank. Our old house was only a hundred yards from the river. Actually, now that I think about it, our new house is also pretty close to the river, just not the downtown part of the river.
The weather can be fickle too. Here we are (a bunch of gymnasts), back from mountain biking along the river bank. The date is May 5.
This is me, on my way to work 3 days later. The date is May 8.
Conversely, here is an early blizzard. It dropped 2 feet of heavy snow on trees that were totally unprepared.
Then, 4 weeks later, we get this gorgeous fall.
For a small town, lots of things happen here. This is the Saskatchewan River Roar. This is (was) the only stop in Canada for the Formula 1 hydroplanes.
Here is our Dragon Boat team:
This is the start of the Saskatoon Marathon. Sandy is somewhere in that bunch, running her first half-marathon.
