Alberta Clipper Plunges Manitoba into the Deep Freeze

An Alberta Clipper crossing the province today will bring another accumulating snowfall to the region and then usher in a major pattern change that will plunge Central Canada into a deep freeze.

Snow is on tap today for all of the Red River Valley courtesy an Alberta Clipper moving through the region. Snow will spread eastwards through the morning, moving into the Red River Valley between 9AM and 12PM. Snow will persist until the early evening before tapering off.

A large area of 5-10cm of snow is expected today, with a narrow swath likely receiving just over 10cm.

By the time all is said and done most areas along the swath of snowfall will see between 5-10 cm of new snow, however a swath running from Brandon east-southeast through the southern Red River Valley will likely see slightly over 10 cm.

This snowfall comes hot on the heels of a major winter storm that dumped 18-33 cm of snow in Winnipeg on Monday.

Aside from the snow, today will be a little warmer than normal with a high near -10°C. Particularly in the morning, a southeasterly wind of 15-25 km/h will make it feel rather chilly. Winds will ease through the afternoon as they back to north-northwesterly by late this evening. Skies will remain mixed to cloudy overnight with lows dropping to around the -18°C mark.

Saturday will bring mixed to cloudy skies in the morning, with thicker cloud cover and a chance of flurries moving into the region in the afternoon as another low pressure system slumps down from the northwest. Temperatures will continue to be seasonably mild with highs near the -8°C mark. With the new system cloud moving in for the afternoon, a chance of flurries will return to the region. No significant accumulations are expected with this system, but there may end up being enough to get a slight layer on your windshield. The cloud and chance of flurries will continue overnight as temperatures drop to a mild -12°C.

Sunday will start off with cloud and a chance of flurries, but that will clear out through midday as a very broad cold front pushes southwards. Highs will recover a couple degrees from the overnight low to around -10°C, but temperatures will begin dropping sharply when the cloud clears out in the afternoon and colder air begins working in from the north. Lows are expected to drop to around -22°C on Sunday night under clear to partly cloudy skies.

Prairies Fall Into An Arctic Grip

The big story for next week will be the dramatic pattern shift which plunges bitterly cold air southwards across the Prairies and produces daytime highs 5-10°C below normal for this time of year.

Climate Prediction Center’s 6-10 Day Temperature Anomaly Outlook valid January 4-9, 2016

Daytime highs are expected to fall through the first half of the week from the mid-minus teens towards the -22 to -24°C range for the second half of the week. Overnight lows are a bit of a trickier challenge as there’s not a lot of certainty as to how much clearing we’ll see, and overnight cloud cover can dramatically impact how cold it gets. There is very high confidence in this cold snap as shown in the above CPC1 graphic, which has a ≥90% chance for below-normal temperatures across much of the western United States (and by extension, the southern Canadian Prairies). This is the largest extent of 90% probability of below-normal temperatures in the 15-year history of this outlook.

NAEFS 8-14 Day Temperature Anomaly Forecast — Valid January 6-13, 2017

The cold weather is expected to persist into the following week as well, but may begin abating in the 10-14 day range.


  1. Climate Prediction Center 

Brad

Brad lives in Winnipeg with his wife and two children and is the founder of A Weather Moment. He has loved weather from a very young age and has followed that passion through his life so far. He received a B.Sc. in Earth Sciences with Specialization in Atmospheric Sciences and is currently employed in the field of meteorology. You can find the author as WeatherInThePeg on Mastodon.

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