The first week of fall[1] will start off with weather that will seemingly put this summer to shame. Very warm weather is on the way with potentially record-breaking highs across Southern Manitoba on Thursday!
A prominent upper-level ridge in place over the Prairies has pushed the polar jet stream far northwards and allowed warm air to spread into the Southern Prairies from the United States. As a result, significantly warmer than normal temperatures will continue through the remainder of the week in Winnipeg.
Today will start off fairly cloudy thanks to some stratus cloud that spread northwards ahead of a dissipating trough of low pressure. The cloud should clear out for the afternoon and we’ll see temperatures climb to around 24 or 25°C. The temperature will dip to around 14°C tonight under mainly clear skies.
Thursday and Friday will both bring highs just at or over the 30°C mark under mainly sunny skies. South to southeasterly winds will begin tapping into some moisture from the Central Plains of the US and we’ll see the humidity gradually rise for the latter half of the week. Dewpoint values will climb into the mid-to-upper teens, which when combined with highs near 30°C, it will feel more like the mid-to-upper 30’s. The overnight lows both nights will be in the mid-teens.
Record-Breaking Potential
We have a slight chance of breaking daily record high temperatures on both Thursday and Friday. For Thursday, September 25th the daily record high temperature is 31.1°C set in 1950. For Friday, September 26th the daily record high temperature is 31.7°C set in 1957. Both days will see temperatures climbing to or just above the 30°C mark, and if maximum heating is realized, we may get the bump we need to break one of these records!
| Date | High Temperature (2014) | Record High |
|---|---|---|
| September 25 | 27.7°C | 31.1°C (1950) |
| September 26 | 30°C (Forecast) | 31.7°C (1952) |
Cooler Weekend
The weekend is looking great, despite a cool-down that’s in store. Daytime highs will dip around 5°C or so for the weekend with both days seeing highs in the mid–20’s. Fortunately this still puts us around 8°C above normal for the time of year, so there will be little to complain about. We’ll likely see a bit more cloud that we do through the second half of the week, but all in all it will be a gorgeous weekend!
- …sort of. Meteorological fall started at the beginning of September, but fall as most people consider it began on September 22nd after the autumnal equinox. ↩
