An Arctic ridge strengthening over southern Manitoba will bring bitterly cold weather to the region.
The weather this weekend in the Winnipeg area will be influenced by three different weather systems. The first is an Arctic ridge re-strengthening across southern Manitoba, the second is a disturbance that will track across the northern United States, and the third is a low that will drop south out of Nunavut.
The Arctic ridge will bring colder weather to the Winnipeg area. Daytime highs will drop from the -20 to -15 °C range today into the -25 to -20 °C range this weekend. Likewise, overnight lows will dip from the -30 to -25 °C range down into the -35 to -30 °C range. These colder temperatures will combine with winds of 10 to 25 km/h and give wind chill values of -45 to -40 at times.
The other two features will bring cloud cover to the region. The disturbance passing to the south will bring mixed skies to the region today and on Saturday. Skies will clear on Saturday night, then mixed skies will redevelop on Sunday as the Nunavut low drops south.
A few flurries are possible on Sunday as the low passes through, but no accumulating snow is expected.
Long Range Outlook
Next week will bring a major change to the weather pattern in the region, but it will be in the latter half of the week. Temperatures will gradually shift to seasonal values through the first half of the week as the Arctic high in the region slowly drops south into the United States. In the second half of the week, the Polar Vortex will re-focus over the High Arctic while a lobe drops south into the United States. This will allow upper ridging to build east into the Prairies and send Pacific air back into the region.
This will allow temperatures to begin pushing back towards seasonal values by the end of the week, followed by the chance for daytime highs that climb above 0 °C on the weekend.
The above-normal temperature pattern looks like it should hold through the rest of February once it gets established. This may put Winnipeg back on the storm track and give a chance of mixed wintery precipitation from time to time.
The return of warmer weather and longer days will help it feel a lot more spring-like by next weekend!
Today’s seasonal daytime high in Winnipeg is -8 °C while the seasonal overnight low is -18 °C.
