Friday 6 April 2012

Weekend Forecast


Smoke from a brush fire outside of Teulon, Manitoba, area can be
 seen from a considerable distance away. (Vera-Lynn Kubinec/CBC)

     Good evening, and what an amazing Good Friday it was! We reached 20°C in the city today with lots of sunshine, especially this morning and early afternoon. Winnipeg did not break a record, as the old record for today is 22.8°C in 1900, but a good half a dozen were broken outside the city. Grass fires were a major concern over southern Manitoba today though thanks to low humidity, dry soil, strong winds and lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. Full story here by CBC.

     Now here's my latest forecast for the rest of the weekend:

     A few showers will be possible tonight and tomorrow morning. At this point, a rumble of thunder cannot be ruled out, but it is looking unlikely that we'll see widespread storms thanks to lack of moisture/instability. A strong llj may be enough for us to get a few bands of heavier showers though. Generally I would call for a trace to 2 mm for the Winnipeg area, locally higher amounts possible to the north and east of the city.

     We'll get a bit of a break tomorrow afternoon with some sunshine, but that sunshine will be brief. More showers and possibly even wet flurries will be possible Saturday evening and overnight with the wrap-around. At this point, an additional 1 or 2 mm is expected for the city, with very little snow accumulation if we get snow. Temperatures will also be falling in the afternoon behind the cold front.
     It will be very windy tomorrow too with winds from the west or southwest at over 50 km/h. Locally winds could be as high as 60 km/h and gusts to 80 km/h at times so hold on to your hats!! Winds will be strongest late in the afternoon and early in the evening.

     Sunday is looking drier than it was looking this morning. A mix of sun and cloud can now be expected, with just a few hit and miss showers still possible. Again it will be very windy from the west at about 40 km/h. It will be cool with highs in the mid single digits only, a few degrees below our normal 7°C.

     Monday looks windy yet again with NW winds expected to be about 30 gusting to 40 km/h. There could still be a lot of lingering cloud cover and scattered flurries as well since we're only expecting a high near 0°C Monday. Beyond Monday, it's looking cold Tuesday and Wednesday with overnight lows below zero (-5 to -10) and highs barely over the freezing mark. It's going to be difficult to get used to the cooler weather!

     Meanwhile, Saskatchewan is going to get pounded tonight. Up to 30 cm of snow can be expected in and northeast of Regina, and that will be accompanied by winds over 50 km/h!! Classic Prairie spring blizzard shaping up!! Here's how Edmonton's 20+ cm of snow looked yesterday:

Lorraine Osborne sent this picture to The Weather Network. I don't take credit for this photo.
     After seeing what they're getting out west, we've got nothing to complain about! :P

5 comments:

  1. Still haven't seen the worst of the winds in the city with gusts near 50 km/h. Brandon has been seeing gusts close to 70 km/h this afternoon. Winds will be strongest in Winnipeg late afternoon and early evening before diminishing slightly tonight.

    Isolated drizzle and sprinkles out there this afternoon with the low cloud. It was nice to see the sun earlier but that is long gone until tomorrow. More widespread area of showers and flurries to our west in southwestern Manitoba will be moving in for this evening, so expect a showery evening with a few wet flurries possible. Nothing huge, maybe a mm or two at most.

    We wont be seeing a break in these winds until Tuesday. And we'll see some sunshine to start the day tomorrow, but clouds will begin to fill in again in the afternoon with scattered showers or flurries possible in the afternoon and evening.

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  2. So much for evening showers, the showers are staying in the Interlake.
    Boy did we ever miss out on this storm system, not that many are complaining though :P We'll take this over the 8 cm of snow and blowing snow in Regina, and 30 to 45 cm northeast of that city. Not so 'Winterpeg' these past few years now aren't we?

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  3. Looking like a lovely Easter day if you don't mind the wind. With more sun than initially forecast yesterday, we may actually get close to 10°C. Clouds will move in later in the afternoon, with a few sprinkles or flurries possible this evening.

    Looking cold tomorrow and Tuesday. Looking like our most below normal days in several weeks. We will struggle to reach the freezing mark both days, well below the normal high of +8°C. We wont even be close to breaking cold records though.

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  4. Cloudy, cold, blustery with flurries today. Just want to stay warm and cozy in bed kind of day today :P

    Only expecting a high around -1 or -2°C today, 9 or 10 degrees below the normal high. The flurries wont accumulate to much, but some heavier flurries may give some areas a local half a cm or so.

    Tomorrow will be a little brighter, but still cold and breezy.

    Things finally begin to warm Wednesday, with double digits temperature expected to return for Thursday. Already watching a system which may impact us on the weekend, will have to keep an eye on it throughout the week.

    The rest of April at this point is looking more normal. Bursts of warm versus cold look likely, with a more unsettled pattern as well. It is important to note that of the 10 warmest Marches, all had snow in April and neither had above normal temperatures in May. Chances are this year will be the same, but we'll see.

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  5. According to Rob's Blog, the past 12 months has been the warmest 12 month period in Winnipeg on record. Full details are explained by Rob (comment number 17) here :

    http://robsobsblog.blogspot.ca/2012/04/some-below-normal-temperatures-for.html

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