Tag: Windy

Hot Weather Continues

Brad Leave a comment

The summer-like temperatures seen in Winnipeg over the past couple days will continue into the weekend with daytime highs 10°C above normal. A cold front will finally push through on Saturday evening, bringing an end to the exceptional warmth and ushering in a return to seasonal temperatures.

Today will be a gorgeous day in the Red River Valley with light winds and daytime highs near 25°C with a bit of a southwesterly wind. Expect a few clouds tonight with a low near 10°C.

Tomorrow will be a more interesting day as a more organized southerly flow develops over the Red River Valley ahead of an approaching low pressure system. Temperatures will climb to around 27°C while a meager amount of moisture pools through the Red River Valley ahead of an approaching trough. As the trough moves into the Red River Valley, it’s looking quite possible that we may see a few thunderstorms develop, however the chance is largely conditional.

Winnipeg Forecast Sounding for the afternoon of Saturday May 2, 2015
This forecast sounding valid Saturday afternoon for Winnipeg from the NAM model shows a deep layer of instability, adequate moisture and favorable shear for thunderstorm development.

Given the fairly low amount of moisture available, cloud bases would likely be very high; the forecast sounding indicates cloud bases near 10,000ft which would mean the biggest threat from the storms would be strong wind gusts. Some hail might be a threat further south in North Dakota, perhaps sneaking onto extreme southeastern Manitoba, but overall it looks more like we’ll see a few weak thunderstorms develop capable of producing some fairly gusty winds. The overall environment, save for the lack of moisture, looks quite favorable for the development of the storms, though. Winds will generally be out of the south to southwest at around 30 gusting 50km/h with a slight chance for some 50 gusting 70km/h winds in the afternoon.

Some cloud will linger overnight as temperatures dip to around 9°C with winds relatively light out of the west to northwest.

Sunday will bring a bit of cloudiness and slightly cooler temperatures with a daytime high of “only” 19°C. Winds could be gusty out of the northwest for a few hours beginning in the morning before settling down to 30 gusting 50km/h for the afternoon. Sunday night looks mainly clear with a low near 5°C.

Wednesday? Beautiful, No Foolin’! Thursday? Not So Much…

Brad Leave a comment

Some of the warmest weather so far this year will move into the region today, drawn eastwards by a fairly strong spring storm moving through the Central Prairies. The warmth is not meant to last, though, as a strong cold front pushes through and brings below-normal temperatures for the remainder of the week.

Wednesday
16°C / 2°C
Windy with sunny breaks this afternoon

Thursday
⇓ -2°C / -12°C
Cloudy & windy; chance of showers or flurries

Friday
0°C / -8°C
Mainly sunny & cool

Today will be quite a warm day thanks to very mild air over our region; 925mb temperatures are expected to climb to around 9°C, which should translate to daytime highs near 15 or 16°C once we sunshine this afternoon. Speaking of sunshine, while today is starting off cloudy, we should the cloud cover break up this afternoon as the dry slot associated with the Central Prairie low moves across Southern Manitoba. Alongside the sunshine and clearing will be fairly gusty westerly winds to 30–40km/h with gusts as high as 60km/h. The winds will taper off in the evening as we head to an overnight low of around +2°C.

RPDS 3hr. QPF & MSLP valid Thursday, April 2, 2015
The RPDS shows an area of light precipitation moving through the Red River Valley on Thursday with a relatively tight pressure gradient that will produce gusty northerly winds.

Thursday will be a significantly less pleasant day as a cold front pushes through Southern Manitoba, bringing with it cooler temperatures, gusty northerly winds and a fairly good chance for some shower or flurry activity. Temperatures in Winnipeg will slide through the morning, settling near –1 or –2°C for much of the afternoon as gusty northerly winds to around 40km/h tap cooler air from the north. The best chance for any shower or flurry activity would be through the morning & early afternoon. Skies will clear out Thursday evening as we head to a low near –12°C.

Friday will be a benign weather day for Winnipeg & the Red River Valley, but temperatures will be well below normal. Daytime highs will only be around +1 or +2°C through the Red River Valley, which is a few degrees below normal for this time of year. Fortunately, winds will be light and with that increasingly strong April sun shining, it won’t feel so bad. Expect temperatures to drop to around –8°C on Friday night with partly cloudy skies.

Quiet Weekend Ahead

The weekend is looking fairly quiet for Winnipeg with seasonal to slightly below-seasonal temperatures and a few clouds. A ridge of high pressure building in from the Arctic looks to keep most disturbances to the south of Winnipeg, however with the main frontal zone setting up near the U.S. border and a few shortwaves rippling along, areas along the U.S. border in Southern Manitoba may see a few showers or flurries through the weekend. Nothing significant is expected.

NAEFS 8-14 Day Temperature Anomaly Outlook (issued 12Z March 31, 2015)
The NAEFS 8-14 day temperature anomaly forecast show above-seasonal warmth returning to Manitoba.

In the longer range, it looks fairly likely that we’ll see a return to above normal temperatures through the second week of April as the storm track shifts back further north; while above normal temperatures will return, it looks like much of the warm weather will be associated with weather disturbances, making it likely that we’ll see more of a “roller coaster” temperature pattern than a prolonged period of warm, dry weather. Only time will tell, though! For now, expect a few cool days and then a stretch of near-seasonal temperatures.

Warmer Weather Returns for the Weekend

Brad Leave a comment

The brief cool-down in the wake of a relatively short-lived, but potent storm will come to an end this weekend thanks to another low pressure system moving across the Prairies that will bring a warm front across the province over the next couple days.

Friday
-1°C / -7°C
Mainly cloudy with a chance of flurries

Saturday
7°C / 1°C
Increasingly cloudy & windy

Sunday
7°C / -2°C
Clearing & windy

Today will see cloud moving in through the morning as a weak disturbance moves into western Manitoba. While this system will bring 2–4cm of snow west of the Red River Valley, here in Winnipeg we’ll see just a slight chance of a light flurry or two. Further west in the Red River Valley – near Portage la Prairie S/SE down towards Morden & Winkler – will likely see a bit of light snow today, but no significant accumulations from it. Winds will be around 20km/h or so out of the south and Winnipeg will see a high temperature near –1°C. Skies will clear this evening as temperatures head to a low near –7°C.

Saturday will be a warm but windy day as a warm front moves into the Red River Valley. Temperatures will climb to an above-normal[1] 7°C under increasingly cloudy skies. Winds will pick up fairly early in the day and strengthen out of the south to 40–50km/h.

Saturday Night
1°C
Rain overnight

A low pressure system will track through Manitoba on Saturday night. The biggest impact from this storm will be felt in Central and Northern Manitoba where up to 10cm of snow may fall. Further south, we’ll see an area of rain move across the region beginning early Saturday evening and tapering off sometime mid-overnight.

Generally speaking, somewhere between 2–5mm of rain is likely to fall. Winds will taper off in the evening as the Red River Valley moves into the trough of this system, and then pick up again out of the northwest once the low passes. The wind will likely strengthen to around 40km/h by Sunday morning.

GDPS 12hr. QPF valid 12Z Sunday March 29, 2015
12hr. accumulated precipitation amounts forecasted by the GDPS for Saturday night.

Sunday will see clearing skies and a high once again near 7°C. Winds will remain strong out of the northwest at 40–50km/h into the early afternoon before tapering off.

Long Range

The long-range forecast looks quite nice through the first half of next week. Both Monday & Tuesday look to bring fairly sunny skies and highs somewhere in the 5–10°C range. Things take a bit of a turn mid-week when a low pressure system is forecast to move across the Prairies and potentially bring another snow event to the Red River Valley.

  1. Normal daytime highs for this time of year in Winnipeg are near +3°C.  ↩

Elsewhere in Weather News: March 21st, 2015

Matthieu Leave a comment

Maritimes Experience a Winter to Remember

With spring now in place Maritime residents would expect to see more forgiving weather than they have been experiencing this past winter. However, this has not been the case this past week. The East Coast has been hit with another strong coastal storm that brought blizzard conditions and large amounts of snow Tuesday-Wednesday. A fairly deep low pressure system was anchored just off the coast and drew in some cold air in behind – conditions right for a blizzard.

[map autofit=”1″ disable_scrollwheel=”1″] [pin]Halifax, NS[/pin] [pin]Saint John, NB[/pin] [/map]

Halifax was especially hit hard by this storm with a general 35cm falling in the city, with some higher amounts reported. These combined with winds that gusted up to 113km/h to create blizzard conditions. Schools, businesses and government offices were forced to shut down and no public transit was running. Currently, Halifax has a whopping 93cm of snow on the ground which almost doubles the old record of snow on ground of 51cm in 1967 for today (records for snow on ground have been kept since 1955 in Halifax). Saint John, NB even had more snow than that on the ground after the storm – 169cm of snow was on the ground Thursday.

Sidewalks in Halifax are getting quite narrow after the most recent snowstorm. (Source: Twitter/@HadynWatters)
Sidewalks in Halifax are getting quite narrow after the most recent snowstorm. (Source: Twitter/@HadynWatters)

Unfortunately, yet another system is set to affect the Atlantic Provinces as another strong trough makes its way towards the East Coast. The storm will really ramp up later this afternoon – numerous types of precipitation will be in play, with mostly rain near the shoreline, transitioning to mixed types and finally heavy snow as you head further inland. The highest snowfall amounts are expected to be around 40-50cm where it will be all snow, and as much as 20mm of rain could fall in Halifax. City crews have begun clearing city drains to limit the flooding that could take place if most precipitation falls as rain in Halifax.

In other news, Australia has been hit with another strong cyclone this week. The cyclone had a fairly small inner core, but still managed to bring winds of up to 170km/h near Cooktown and a decent storm surge to the coast. Thankfully no injuries were reported with the storm and it is currently in the dissipating stage over northern Australia.