Tag: Snow

The Calm After the Storm

Brad Leave a comment

After a stormy start to the week over the entire Red River Valley, conditions will begin to settle down.

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The low will move off into Ontario Today

Monday

Monday
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Snow ending
-1°C / -6°C

The snow will gradually taper off over Southern Manitoba today, with many places seeing close to 5cm in total. Wind speeds will remain high, with values of 30 to 40km/h gusting up to 50-60km/h from the north. Temperatures today will be around or just below zero in Southern Manitoba, but of course the wind will make it feel a bit cooler than that.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday
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Chance of Flurries
-1°C / -7°C
Wednesday
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Chance of Flurries
1°C / -8°C

Tuesday will be a benign day weather-wise, with high temperatures generally just below zero in Southern Manitoba. The wind will be relatively light and from the north, making for a fairly comfortable day.

Wednesday will be a bit warmer than Tuesday, but otherwise there won’t be an significant changes in conditions. The wind will again be light and from the north, with only a slight chance of flurries.

Long Range

The long range forecast is beginning to show some glimmers of hope. Models are beginning to show signs of a pattern change towards normal or just above normal conditions as we move towards the end of April. Unfortunately, that means we’re likely stuck with well below normal weather at least through this week…but hopefully that will change in the not too distant future.

Winter Storm on the Way; Spring Still M.I.A.

Brad Leave a comment

Yet more winter weather is in store for Winnipeg as we remain stuck on the cold side of the jet stream while the main storm track through the Northern Plains of the United States becomes more active. While weather will remain relatively benign through today and tomorrow, things will become more active on Sunday and persist through much of next week.

Friday and Saturday

Friday

2°C / -9°C
Chance of scattered flurries this morning. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud.

We’ll see the chance of some scattered flurries through the Red River Valley this morning as a weak trough hangs back into Southern Manitoba from the low pressure system walloping Southern Ontario. Any snow that falls will be light and non-accumulating. Through the day the skies will break up a bit and we’ll end up under a mix of sun and clouds with a high near 2°C here in the city and closer to -1 or 0°C elsewhere in the Red River Valley. Tonight we’ll see partly cloud skies with temperatures dropping to around -8 or -9°.

Saturday

4°C / -7°C
Mostly sunny.

On Saturday, we’ll see fairly sunny skies with the warmest temperatures we’ve seen in a while1 as our daytime high rockets all the way to a balmy 3 or 4°C! Winds will remain relatively light out of the northeast throughout the day. Clouds will begin to move in through the overnight period in advance of the next weather system as we drop to around -7 or -8°C.

Sunday into Monday

Sunday

3°C / -4°C
Cloudy. Slight chance of showers or flurries in the afternoon. Snow beginning overnight.

Here comes winter. A major storm system will push out of Wyoming through South Dakota on Saturday night and into central North Dakota through the day on Sunday. Convection will fire up to the east of the low which will supply moisture that will wrap northwards and westwards through an area of strong lift on the north side of the low. This area of precipitation will push northwards through N. Dakota into Southern Manitoba pushing northwards to Winnipeg by Sunday evening. Light snow will begin overnight as winds strengthen out of the north.

GDPS 12hr. precipitation forecast with surface pressure.

GDPS 12hr. precipitation forecast with surface pressure.

By Monday morning the low pressure system is forecast to be near Lake-of-the-Woods with a strong pressure gradient situated over the Red River Valley. Snow will be wrapping around the back side of this system into the valley while strong northerly winds of 40-50km/h help blow it around. Temperatures will, fortunately, be near the freezing mark, but with the strong winds and damp air it will feel quite cool.

The system should leave the region overnight Monday with a cool, benign weather pattern settling in once again.

  1. It’s rather depressing that +3°C can possibly be the warmest temperatures we’ve had in a while when it’s mid-April. ↩

More Snow on the Way

Brad Leave a comment

sigh

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850mb wind forecast showing the deep southerly flow that will be providing the moisture and lift for today’s system.

Today

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0°C / -2°C
Snow beginning this afternoon. 2-4cm overnight.

A frontal wave sliding across the Prairies will push into Southern Manitoba this morning, spreading snow eastwards across the Red River Valley this afternoon. While southwestern Manitoba will see 5–10cm of the white stuff, we should fare a little better here in the RRV with 5cm expected near the US border tapering off to 2–4cm here in Winnipeg. The bulk of the snow will fall this evening into the overnight period before tapering off late overnight or early tomorrow morning.

Saturday & Sunday

Saturday
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1°C / -11°C
Cloudy with a chance of flurries. Clearing late in the day.
Sunday
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-4°C / -14°C
Increasing cloud. Light snow beginning in the afternoon.

Saturday will be a bit of a mixed bag with some lingering flurries in the morning and gradual clearing in the afternoon before skies clear late in the afternoon or evening. The high temperature on Saturday should be around 1°C and we’ll see temperatures drop to –11 or –12°C Saturday night.

More snow looks to be on the way for Sunday afternoon as an Alberta Clipper slides along the international border. At this point, it doesn’t look like a significant system, but it should pack enough of a punch that it will likely drop a couple cm through the RRV in the afternoon. After Sunday, it looks like we’ll slip back into another benign pattern with below-normal temperatures as a surface ridge keeps snowier weather to our west and to our south.

Elsewhere in Weather News: March 30th, 2013

Matthieu Leave a comment

Europe Battles Cold

This past month it has not only been Southern Manitoba dealing with pesky cold Arctic air lingering around while the spring thaw should be starting up, most of Europe has also been under significantly below normal temperatures for the month of March. What has been bringing such cold weather can be attributed mostly to the same reason why we’ve been getting such cold; a negative NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) pattern. This is cause for Scandanavian highs staying put and bringing down some unseasonably cold air from the north-east in Europe’s case.

NAO

Graph of the NAO showing values of below zero for the whole month of March. (Source: NCEP)

Germany has had the worst of the cold in Europe with their average March temperature 4°C below average – the coldest ever since record keeping started in 1883. Other parts of Europe were generally 3°C below average for March. To add to the cold temperatures, Europe has been faced with a few significant snowstorms this month, such as last week’s snowstorm that caused hundreds of flight cancellations and even the closure of Frankfurt’s International Airport. The reason for these significant snow events this late in the season can be attributed to a low pressure system drawing in moist air from the North Mediterranean. This, when combined with the stationary Siberian high feeding cold air into the northern half of the low, makes for ideal snowy conditions.

Low pressure system, Europe

Low pressure system making it’s way across Europe and bringing with it snow. Heavy snow in areas outlined in purple, thanks to cold air being brought down by the Scandanavian high.

The Scandanavian high looks to stay put over the region for just a little less than another week, however, with the NAO trending upwards and with the sun getting stronger every day (we are now at the equivalent of a September sun), this means that warmer temperatures are on the horizon for most of Europe for the second week of April.