Don't put away your windshield scraper or block heater cord just yet. The cold weather is expected to stick around. 

"Our forecast right now is calling for a low of -22oC," shared Natalie Hazell, with Environment Canada. "We will have some wind in the overnight periods so we could be looking at wind chills of -32oC. So quite cold for this time of year."

"If we look at where our high-pressure systems and low-pressure systems are at the moment, they are placed such that we are getting flow from the northwest pretty much everywhere on the prairies. While we do have some topography, it's not really enough to stop the cold air from the north coming down."

"We've been under the influence of a ridge of high pressure for the last several days but it's kind of moved off so that started the cold trend. But the low-pressure system in the northeastern part of the prairies is bringing us this northwest flow, so cold air from the Arctic is making its way down here."

She adds that while these conditions are not entirely uncommon for this time of year, it is also below the average temperature. 

"We do have extreme values from certain days around this time of year that suggests that this type of thing has happened before."

The coldest temperature ever recorded on April 5th was in 1936 at -23.3oC. The coldest temperature on April 6th was on 1979 at -17.3oC. We are expecting a low of -22oC overnight so records are in jeopardy of being broken. 

"I don't think it's particularly usual at this time of year, usually our low temperatures so overnight, early morning are probably in the range of -4oC so the fact that we're seeing -22oC does tell us that we're well below normal for this time of year. It has happened before but I wouldn't call this the usual for this time of year."

So for the big question, when is the long-awaited spring ever going to arrive?

"How many times have I had that question asked to me in the last little while?" she answered with a laugh. "So many times."

"If we have a look at the forecast, we do see temperatures warming up a little bit between now and the beginning of next week. But then they don't really warm up very much after that. So it looks like a very slow progression upwards and we might not be in normal conditions for quite awhile, at least for the next two weeks we're still at temperatures below normal."

As for any more precipitation heading our way, Hazel adds that there is always a chance.

"There looks like there is a system coming through this weekend that might give us a bit of precipitation and another that might come along towards the end of next week."