Brad, Author at A Weather Moment • Page 366 of 423

Special: Louis Riel Day 2013 Blizzard

February 19, 2013April 3, 2015 Brad Leave a comment

Louis Riel Day was marked this year by a significant blizzard that brought much of the Red River Valley to a standstill. While snowfall was relatively light, with only 5–10cm reported in most localities (although a few pockets of 10–15cm did exist through the Southern portion of the Red River Valley), strong northerly winds that gusted as high as 70–80km/h produced blowing snow that gave whiteout conditions through most of the Valley.

Warm Front on Sunday, February 17

This system was marked by a warm frontal passage on Sunday near noon. Strong southerly winds brought local blowing snow to the region as an area of precipitation blossomed along the warm front. Here in Winnipeg, the precipitation fell as ice pellets first before switching to snow. Further south, a little deeper into the warm air, moderate band of freezing rain developed, coating Steinbach, as well as Highway 1 East, Highway 52 and Highway 59 in a layer of ice.

Freezing rain accumulating in Steinbach. Credit: @andrewpenner78

After this band went through, then winds slowly died off and we were able to enjoy a relatively nice afternoon. Near Steinbach, however, there were reports of numerous cars in the ditch due to “skating-rink”-like road conditions.

Cold Front and Blizzard, Sunday/Monday February 17/18

The cold front associated with this system passed through Winnipeg between 6–7PM CST; winds switched from southerly to calm to northerly and cloud ceilings rapidly dropped to 300–400 feet and a few hours of freezing drizzle happened in the low-level mixing immediately behind the cold front. By 10:30, winds began to pick up and the freezing drizzle switched over to snow. By midnight, visibilities had dropped to ½SM and would stay there or worse until roughly noon on Monday. To our south, conditions remained practically a white-out for an additional 6–7 hours, with visibilities not lifting above ¾SM until 7PM CST as sustained winds of 50–60km/h battered the area.

24 Hour Precipitation Accumulations

In total, around 3–6cm fell in Winnipeg, with areas on the south side of the city receiving nearly twice that of the central/northern portion. South of Winnipeg, snowfall amounts were appropriately higher:

Winnipeg: 3–6cm
Morden: 8cm
Morris: 10cm
Pinawa: 8cm
Steinbach: 11–13cm

As winds abated, colder air began working into the region. The temperatures have been on a downward trend all the way from Monday morning to the time of publishing this; temperatures are beginning to level off at –27°C.

Impacts

Twitter was a great source of information for what was happening during this event; between weather reports flooding in on the MBstorm hashtag and immediate communication about road conditions, it was relatively easy to get a grip on the significance of this system.

Some pictures came in early on Sunday as the band of freezing rain pushed through Steinbach:

Freezing rain accumulation on a car in Steinbach. Credit: @andrewpenner78

As the winds picked up, blowing snow quickly became the predominant impact over the Red River Valley:

Snow drifts rapidly growing in Niverville. Credit: @jim_311

Some truly impressive images came out of Winnipeg Beach on Monday morning:

Massive snow drifts in Winnipeg Beach. Credit: @annhogie

Conditions on highways were fairly brutal on Monday:

Blowing snow on MB Highway 311. Credit: @jim_311

Blowing snow in Emerson, MB.

Even within cities in the southern Red River Valley, conditions got quite bad:

Blowing snow in Winkler, MB on Monday morning.

Many highways were closed for this event:

Highway 16 from Hwy. 50 to Hwy. 466
Highway 1 West from Portage to Winnipeg
Highway 75 from Winnipeg to the US Border; I–29 from the US Border to Grand Forks, ND
Highway 5 from Neepawa up to St. Rose.

Numerous traffic accidents occurred as well, keeping the RCMP quite busy:

A 10-car pileup occurred in St. Francois Xavier that involved several semi-trucks. No injuries.
3 semi-trailer trucks collided on Highway 1 west of PR 332.
Two semis smashed through road barricades in Headingly. A police cruiser was damaged by debris but nobody was hurt.

Perhaps most tragically, one man died in this storm. A 54-year old man was found dead near Landmark. He had left his car after driving into the ditch on road 45N. The road was slippery and visibility was near-zero at the time.

This was a very significant blizzard that had huge impacts on the Red River Valley. Fortunately, residents had plenty of time to prepare as Environment Canada issued special weather statements on Friday morning addressing the potential for a significant blizzard and carried them through to the issuing of warnings.

p>If you have any pictures you’d like to share, leave them in the comments below or send them to aweathermoment at shaw dot ca.

Blizzard to Start the Week

February 18, 2013April 3, 2015 Brad Leave a comment

Heavy blowing snow will greet residents of the Red River Valley on Monday morning. Calmer, but colder weather is in store after the storm passes.

NAM model predicted weather on Monday morning

Monday

Monday

Blowing snow
-18°C / -28°C

A strong low pressure system has generated heavy blowing snow and blizzard conditions in parts of the Red River Valley on Monday morning. Wind speeds early Monday are in the 40-50km/h gusting to 60-70km/h range across Southern Manitoba. This in combination with a fresh 5-15cm of snow in the region is the obvious cause of the very poor weather conditions. The wind will gradually taper off through the day on Monday, allowing the blizzard to subside as well. However, blowing snow at some level will last through basically the whole day in open country.

Tuesday

Tuesday

Mainly sunny
-22°C / -31°C

Tuesday will be a very cold day, in fact the coldest in quite awhile. Lows on Tuesday morning will be in the upper minus twenties, with highs in the low minus twenties. Wind chill values will be elevated as well, making for a rather unpleasant day.

Wednesday

Wednesday

Mainly sunny
-15°C / -20°C

Wednesday morning will be another cold one, with lows around minus thirty. Daytime highs will moderate somewhat, reaching into the minus teens. However, wind chill values will become an issue again on Wednesday afternoon, probably not what you were hoping to hear.

Long Range

There is no sign of spring in the long range forecast at the moment, but I do know that each passing day is in fact one day closer to spring, whether it feels that way or not.

Warming Up This Weekend; Snow for Sunday

February 15, 2013April 3, 2015 Brad Leave a comment

Another low pressure system developing over the Yukon Territory will push milder air into Manitoba tomorrow and return us to normal-becoming-above-normal temperatures by the end of the weekend. This low pressure system will slide southwards through the province on Sunday, bringing some light snow with it.

North American composite satellite image showing the surge of warmer air pushing into the Alberta. Image valid for 4AM CST.

Today

Mostly cloudy with periods of light snow.
-13°C / -18°C

The Red River Valley will be mainly cloudy today as a mass of stratus pushes down from Central Manitoba, sliding southwards into North Dakota, bringing periods of light snow throughout the Red River Valley. Temperatures will climb to around –13°C this afternoon and temperatures will drop to around –18°C tonight as skies clear this evening.

Saturday

Saturday

Mix of sun and cloud. Patchy flurries in the afternoon.
-6°C / -8°C

The warm front will push across the Red River Valley through Saturday afternoon, pushing our daytime highs up to an above-seasonal –6°C. Skies will become a mix of sun and cloud as the warm front moves in which, when combined with 850mb temperatures sitting near –10°C, will produce some scattered flurries across the Red River Valley. Skies will completely cloud over on Saturday night with temperatures falling to and remaining steady near –8°C.

Sunday

Sunday

Light snow beginning in the afternoon. 2-4*cm*.
-3°C / -7°C

Sunday will be the most active day of the bunch as this low pressure system finally pushes through. Temperatures will climb up to around –3°C as light snow pushes in midday. This system will not be particularly intense; total snowfall accumulations for the afternoon look to be only a couple cm. The light snow will persist through much of the night with another cm or two falling by morning as temperatures dip to about –10°C. Overall it looks like the Red River Valley will see less than 5cm of snow total with this system.

Some disagreement does exist within the models, in particular pertaining to the intensity of this system; the Canadian GDPS is, in particular, quite gung-ho on making this quite a potent system. It’s hard to tell what to make of it, considering it’s the outlier when compared to the other major models and this is the first significant weather system since CMC upgraded the GDPS on Wednesday claiming an improvement to the output “usually seen only once a decade.” Should the GDPS solution be the correct one, the forecast for Sunday should still hold up, save for the potential for a little more snow (closer to 4–6cm instead of 2–4cm). Monday, on the other hand, would likely be a significant winter storm with close to 10cm of snow falling and blizzard conditions through the Red River Valley (excluding the City of Winnipeg). The other models have just a couple cm of snow for Monday with breezy northwesterly winds, but nothing that would produce more than some local blowing snow. Right now, I think that the GDPS is digging the low out of SK too much and has it pushing too far south which would intensify the low too much and end up producing too much snow & wind. It looks more reasonable for a couple cm of snow and some breezy north winds producing just some local blowing snow.

So we’ll have an increasingly warm and mainly pleasant weekend ahead; Monday looks to be a wild card at this point, but holds the potential to be a significant winter storm event. We’ll post updated information as we get closer to the event in the comments below. Enjoy the long weekend!

Alberta Clipper To Blast SW Manitoba

February 13, 2013April 3, 2015 Brad Leave a comment

A powerful Alberta Clipper system will push through southwest Manitoba this evening bringing heavy snowfall and blowing snow to the region.

Probability of > 2cm of snow from this AB clipper. Blue boundary marks > 30% chance, green boundary marks > 60% chance.

The weather across Southern Manitoba will be fairly benign today with daytime highs generally sitting just below the freezing mark with increasing clouds through the day. Winds will remain light through the day. Light snow will push into southwestern Manitoba this afternoon, potentially pushing into the western Red River Valley as well. Winnipeg may see some light snow this afternoon, but it’s going to likely remain to our southwest; should snow push into the city, there will be little-to-no accumulation. Regions that see more persistent snow today, potentially including the western Red River Valley, accumulations will likely total around 2-ish cm.

Wednesday

Mostly cloudy with patchy light snow.
-3°C / -16°C

Early this evening the Alberta Clipper will begin working it’s way into the Virden & Melita regions, quickly expanding eastwards towards Brandon and Pilot Mound. General snowfall accumulations will be close to 5cm, but there will also be a very narrow band, just north of the track of the clipper, where accumulations will be closer to 10cm. This corridor of heavy snow will lie across the Trans-Canada highway near the Saskatchewan border; anybody travelling west tonight should prepare to encounter heavy snow, snow drifts and near-zero visibilities near the Saskatchewan border. Further east, there’s a little disagreement on what will happen; most models suggest very little snow will fall in the Red River Vally tonight, however the NAM guidance is suggesting that a fair amount could fall. At this point, I think that most of the snow will push into North Dakota before it pushes eastwards towards Winnipeg or the central Red River Valley. Areas near the International Border may get clipped with a couple cm of snow as this clipper exits the region. Winds will remain relatively light, picking up to 20 gusting 40km/h out of the northeast overnight through much of Southern Manitoba. Temperatures will drop to around –14 to –16°C across Southern Manitoba.

Thursday

Thursday

Clearing in the morning.
-14°C / -21°C

Cooler air will filter into Southern Manitoba on Thursday behind the clipper, bringing us a return to seasonal temperatures. The remaining cloud from Wednesday’s system should clear out fairly early in the day, leaving us with mainly sunny skies. We’ll climb to around –13°C with a light north wind. Temperatures will drop into the –20’s tonight as another Arctic ridge slumps into the Prairies.

Friday

Friday

Clearing in the morning.
-14°C / -20°C

Southern Manitoba will be locked under the Arctic ridge on Friday which will result in another day with seasonal temperatures. Highs will sit near –15°C on Friday across most of Southern Manitoba with temperatures dropping back towards –20°C for the night.

After that, it looks like we’ll head back towards above-normal temperatures for a few days. Little-to-no precipitation is expected over the next while.

A Weather Moment

Author: Brad