This week will see one last wintry blast in southern Manitoba before spring finally arrives for good.
Monday
Today will likely be the coldest day of the week. High temperatures will be in the upper minus single digits, with a chance of flurries. This chance of flurries will arise from low-level instability that will develop as the surface warms during the day. To top it all off, there will be a breezy north-west wind – great!
Tuesday
A low pressure system will pass to our south on Tuesday, allowing a cool north-easterly flow to remain established over southern Manitoba. Luckily, that system should remain far enough south to prevent us from seeing any more snow, although a couple of flurries can’t be ruled out.
Wednesday
A brisk northerly flow will remain in southern Manitoba on Wednesday, making for another cold day. High temperatures will be in the mid minus single digits, and there will once again be a chance of flurries.
Record Cold?
With the cold weather that’s expected this week, we will be challenging some cold weather records. The table below shows the record values for the next several days:
| Date | Record Low | Record Cold High |
|---|---|---|
| Monday April 14 | -16.7°C (1893) | -7.8°C (1880) |
| Tuesday April 15 | -16.7°C (1893) | -6.7°C (1875) |
| Wednesday April 16 | -16.7°C (1875) | -4.4°C (1910) |
| Thursday April 17 | -13.3°C (1953) | -3.3°C (1953) |
It looks like we will come close to setting new records on each of the days listed in the table. Stay tuned to see if we manage to actually break any records!
Long Range
The long range forecast calls for increasing temperatures as we move into the weekend. We’ll likely see seasonal temperatures (i.e. low teens) return by the weekend into next week. There is currently no strong prospective of above-normal weather, but we’ll probably see at least a couple seasonably warm days before the month is out.
Record Low Temperatures Broken
A large swath of record low temperatures were set on the morning of April 15, 2014 across the province of Manitoba thanks to a strong Arctic ridge of high pressure sprawled over the region. Overnight lows were 10-20°C below normal throughout the province. Winnipeg did not set a new record low, however some other locations in the Red River Valley did.
| Site | New Record | Old Record (Year) |
|---|---|---|
| Berens River | –23.8°C | –19.6 (1997) |
| Carberry | –14.2°C | –12.9 C (2000) |
| Carman | –15 C | –11.4 C (2000) |
| Fisher Branch | –20.4 C | –11.8 C (2000) |
| Flin Flon | –20.5 C | –16 (1997) |
| George Island | –19.5 C | –16.8 C (1997) |
| Grand Rapids | –24.4 C | –13 (1997) |
| Island Lake | –20.7 C | –20.6 C (2000) |
| McCreary | –13.7 C | –12 (2000) |
| Oak Point Marine | –19.7 C | –11.9 (1997) |
| Pinawa | –21 C | –12 (2000) |
| Roblin | –11.4 C | –11.3 C (1997) |
| Shoal Lake | –11.5 C | –10.2 C (2000) |
| Sprague | –16 C | –10.8 C (2000) |
| The Pas | –20.5 C | –18 C (1986) |
| Thompson | –27.3 C | –23.4 C (1985) |
| Victoria Beach | –20 C | –11 C (2000) |
| Wasagaming | –15.5 C | –15 C (1978) |
More record lows will be at the risk of being broken as the week progresses.
