A cold front will slam through southern Manitoba this morning and bring strong northerly winds that usher cooler temperatures into the region for a couple days.
A strong cold front has passed through Winnipeg early this morning and has brought strong northerly winds to the area. Widespread winds of 40 to 50 km/h will spread through the Red River Valley this morning, but stronger winds up to 60 gusting 90 km/h will be possible over and in the lee of Lake Manitoba. In particular, strong winds will persist through the morning hours in the corridor roughly between Portage la Prairie and the Elie region.
Blowing snow could be a concern with these winds, but the recent mild weather has glazed the top of the snow pack with ice. There may be flurries with the cold front, but any new snow will be limited. As a result, we don’t expect blowing snow to pose much of an issue this morning.
The winds will ease as the day progresses while temperatures call into the -15 to -10 °C range by the end of the afternoon. The clouds will clear out this evening as temperatures drop to around -20 °C overnight. The wind will ease to light overnight.
The forecast for the weekend is pretty simple. An Arctic high will slump into the province behind the cold front and gradually make its way southeast through the province. Saturday will bring sunny skies and light winds with highs in the -10 to -5 °C range. Temperatures will drop back down into the -15 to -10 °C range on Saturday night with light southerly winds as a warm front begins to push across the region.
On Sunday, much of southern Manitoba will see itself back into the air mass we were in before the cold front came through. Temperatures will rebound back to around 0 °C with southerly winds of 20 to 30 km/h. The warmer weather will likely bring mixed skies to the region.
Temperatures will dip back down into the -5 to 0 °C range on Sunday night with clear skies.
Long Range Outlook
Looking ahead to next week, temperatures will continue trending mild with daytime highs hovering from around or just below 0 °C to as high as the mid-single digits. No significant precipitation is in the forecast.
The mild weather of late has been a pleasant break from a lengthy stretch of cold weather this month; today’s system will bring a brief shot of cooler weather, but the warm-up will arrive before the end of the weekend!
Today’s seasonal daytime high in Winnipeg is -5 °C while the seasonal overnight low is -16 °C.
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