Cool Week Ahead; Tornado Alley Hit by Major Outbreak

Cooler weather has settled over Southern Manitoba and while it won’t stay below normal for long, we won’t really be hitting above normal temperatures any time soon, either. The week ahead looks like a middle-of-the-road week with some sun, some cloud, an a chance for some showers.

Tuesday Evening Model Analysis @ 850mb

850mb Analysis of the θe field from the NAM, valid at 00Z Tuesday Evening

Today will bring clear skies to Winnipeg with diminishing winds. Our expected daytime high of 2°C will be a whopping 9°C below our normal daytime high of 11°C for this time of year. Tonight we’ll drop down to a chilly -7°C under clear skies.

Tomorrow will start off sunny and then cloud over in the afternoon as a low pressure system moves across Southern Manitoba. The main shortwave will track through the interlake, bringing in slightly warmer temperatures aloft across Southern Manitoba. The main surface low, however, will track just south of our border, keeping the warmer near-normal, temperatures to our south. Given that Southern Manitoba will have the southern low skirting just south of the International Border and be under the influence of large-scale ascent associated with the shortwave tracking further north, it looks quite likely that an area of showers will blossom as the system moves into Manitoba, and that regions along or just north of the Trans-Canada highway southwards to the U.S. Border will see showers on tomorrow afternoon. As ususal, the exact track will be key, however it’s fairly likely that most communities in the Red River Valley will see some showers tomorrow.

Shortwave vs. Surface Low? A shortwave is the term applied to a troughing disturbance in the upper atmosphere that travels along with the main flow aloft. A surface low is a low pressure system present in the lowest levels of the atmosphere. Each shortwave will often have a surface low pressure system associated with it and the two work in tandem to link the upper and lower atmospheres together. They are not co-located, however, and when compared on a map, can be hundreds of kilometers away from each other.

Things will clear out quickly tomorrow evening and then the rest of the week looks fairly benign, with daytime highs around 7°C and overnight lows around -5°C. Temperatures may jump back to normal on Friday with the approach a more significant low pressure system, but models disagree on it’s exact placement and some keep us on the cooler side of thigns; we’ll have more on that later in the week.

8-14 Day Temperature Anomoly Outlook

8-14 Day Temperature Anomoly Outlook from the NAEFS model from 12Z April 15, 2012.

Temperatures across the Eastern Prairies have been slightly below normal lately due to a persistant upper low anchored near Southampton Island in Hudson Bay. This low has maintained a trough and NW flow aloft over the Eastern Prairies and has been responsible for helping shunt systems further south and keeping us cooler. This large-scale pattern is expected to hold for the next 6-9 days, however signs are pointing to a breakdown of the low and a significant upper ridge to build across the Prairies in the Day 9-12 range. Ensemble models seem to agree with this idea, and as shown above, the NAEFS currently has fairly high confidence for a return to above-normal temperatures next week.


Elsewhere In Weather News

Tornado Alley Hit by Major Outbreak

The major tornado outbreak that occurred in the US Plains on Saturday, April 14th 2012 will be remembered for many years to come. Every single ingredient for long-tracked, damaging tornadoes was present. The storms developed due to a low pressure system centered over the Nebraska/Kansas border which drew in moist air from the gulf and into the Plains –- this spawned extremely strong supercells along its dryline as it slowly moved eastwards.

In anticipating major storms, the SPC had given plenty of warning to the affected areas, issuing a high risk in the 2-day outlook which is a very rare occurrence that has only happened once before. The high risk for tornadoes meant that within a 40km radius there was a 45% chance of an EF-2 to EF-5 tornado in parts of Nebraska and Kansas.

Probabalistic Tornado Graphic issued by the Storm Prediction Center on Saturday, April 14th

Probabalistic Tornado Graphic issued by the Storm Prediction Center on Saturday, April 14th.

Supercells had already exploded in the morning in the state of Kansas but did not produce any tornadoes until about 11:30am when a tornado had been spotted just north-east of North Platte, KS. From then on, tornado sightings were reported every 15 minutes until nightfall as just about every supercell from Nebraska to Oklahoma had a good chance of producing a tornado. Also to be kept in mind is that these supercells produce huge hail, reaching softball size (11.4cm in diameter), and cause significant damage to just about everything as they fall.

Violent tornado near Cherokee, OK

In all, around 100 tornadoes were sighted and luckily, many of them kept populated areas out of harm’s way as they missed villages and major cities. Unfortunately, there was one major city that had not been spared. The city of Woodward, OK (town of 12,000) was directly hit by a tornado, with a preliminary rating of EF-3. Five deaths and 29 injuries occurred in this city as the sirens did not go off, due to the tornado having cut their power. What aided the probability of injury and loss of life was also that the tornado had hit just after midnight, when most residents were asleep and it is extremely difficult to spot a tornado.

Some of the strongest tornadoes produced on Saturday – preliminary ratings:

  • EF-4 that just missed Salina, KS.
  • EF-3 that struck south-east Wichita, KS.
  • EF-3 that killed 5 in Woodward, OK.
  • EF-2 that damaged more than 75% of Creston, IA (town of 250).

Here are a couple of the many breath-taking photos/videos captured yesterday by storm chasers and those affected:

EF-4 tornado that just missed Salina, KS.

A large tree limb punched through the car's side, product of the Wichita tornado. (Source: Cory Mottice)

A large tree limb punched through the car’s side, product of the Wichita tornado. (Source: Cory Mottice)

Home moved off its foundation and destroyed in Wichita, KS. (Source: AP)

Home moved off its foundation and destroyed in Wichita, KS.

Very powerful tornado north of Soloman, KS. (Source: AP)

Very powerful tornado north of Soloman, KS. (Source: AP)

Unfortunately the severe weather threat didn’t end there. More tornadoes were reported in the Upper Mississippi Valley on Sunday associated with the same system. As the system will race east on Monday, tornado probabilities are greatly reduced across the eastern half of the country however, severe thunderstorms are certainly not out of the question as cold air clashes with the warm air situated ahead of the system.

Elsewhere in Weather News is written by Matt

Chilly Start to the Week

We are about to get our first taste of below-normal weather in quite some time. Temperatures on Monday and Tuesday are expected to be several degrees colder than the seasonal average.

GEM model high temperature forecast for Monday

GEM model temperature prediction for 4pm on Monday

High temperatures on Monday are expected to hover around the zero mark in much of Southern Manitoba. Combined with a brisk north-west wind, conditions on Monday will be rather cool. If you consider the wind chill, it will feel closer to -6 on Monday afternoon (calculated using a temperature of 0C and wind speed of 25km/h). Tuesday won’t be much warmer, with highs only expected to creep up in the low single digits. The wind will be lighter on Tuesday, making it feel significantly warmer than Monday…although it will still be chilly. Both Monday and Tuesday are expected to be mainly cloudy, which will also hold our temperature back. If the sun does come out in some areas on a localized basis it will be slightly warmer. In early April the normal high is about 8 degrees in Southern Manitoba, meaning most areas will be between 4 and 8 degrees colder than normal through the first two days of the week. Models show a gradual improvement in temperatures as we move later into the week. By Wednesday we should get up into the high single digits and by Thursday the double digits will become likely.

In the longer range it appears that next weekend could be a bit unsettled. At this time models show a low pressure system moving up into the Northern Plains, spreading rain across a large area, which may include Southern Manitoba. It is too early to say if this system will affect us at all, but it is something to watch.

Looking even further ahead it appears we are in for a period of more normal weather. Longer range guidance is hinting at normal to slightly above normal weather for the next couple weeks. There is also some indication that our weather may remain somewhat unsettled, which is fairly typical for this time of year. Wouldn’t it be something if the first half of April was cooler than the second half of March!


Elsewhere in Weather News

Intense Low Affects Japan

A very powerful low pressure system made landfall in Japan on Tuesday, April 3rd and brought with it incredibly strong winds and much rain. This storm, believed to be the strongest storm to hit Tokyo since 1959, generated 90km/h sustained winds and 150km/h wind gusts at times (highest gust reported in Niigata prefecture, 156.6km/h), in the western part of Japan. Rain rates of over 60mm/h also fell associated with the squall line as it moved across most of Japan’s main island. This caused more than 20,000 homes to lose power, various buildings to collapse and trees to fall – causing 97 injuries and 4 deaths. Flight cancellations and railway closures also had to be taken into mind when traveling, as more than 600 flights were cancelled departing from Japan. The very strong winds resulted in trucks being flipped over on the highways and bridge closures, bringing the traffic to a crawl. Waves of 10m were experienced off the coast, however it was strongly advised to stay inside.

Image of the powerful low centered over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), as and after the squall line passed it produced very high winds. (Source: The Watchers/Japan Meteorological Agency)

Image of the powerful low centered over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), as and after the squall line passed it produced very high winds. (Source: The Watchers/Japan Meteorological Agency)

A high-pressure has since moved into place giving way to sunnier skies with some stronger winds associated with it.

Texas Tornadoes

This past week brought very active weather not only in Japan, but also the US, where violent tornadoes hit populated areas of Texas and caused significant damage. Two supercells dropped tornadoes simultaneously on the afternoon of April 3rd in the Fort Worth and Lancaster areas, causing the most significant damage. Preliminary estimates rate these tornadoes between EF-2 and EF-3, where winds are measured at 177km/h to 266km/h. Tornado warnings had been posted by the National Weather Service well before the storm hit allowing residents to take the necessary precautions; although significant damage was caused to neighbourhoods and industrial parks it could have been much worse. Ten injuries and no deaths were reported, the Dallas mayor called it “miraculous” to see that the numbers weren’t more significant after a big damage path could be seen from aerial view.

Tractor-trailer picked up by the tornado in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. (Source: Reuters/NBC)

Tractor-trailer picked up by the tornado in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. (Source: Reuters/NBC)

Tornadoes had not been the only culprit to cause significant damage that day, as very large hail was also reported with this storm. Hail damage to 100 airplanes at the Dallas airport was reported, with issues ranging from minor inspection needed, to planes being put out of service indefinitely.

Lancaster (just south of Dallas) tornado information, with RADAR captures. (Source: NWS storm reports)

Lancaster (just south of Dallas) tornado information, with RADAR captures. (Source: NWS storm reports)

This week, more storms are expected in Texas and most of the Plains, as the jet stream remains south of the border and systems push through Tornado Alley.

Elswhere in Weather News has been provided by Matt