Sunday 13 April 2014

Winter Hangs On Stubbornly....

     After a messy day yesterday with ice pellets, snow pellets, snow and rain, temperatures will be taking a ridiculous plunge in the next few days. To recap yesterday, 2-3 cm of snow fell over Winnipeg, while a general 2-9 cm appears to have fallen across the RRV with localized higher amounts as per Rob's Blog.

     Now, we plunge back into winter with temperatures flirting with record lows for the next 3-4 days. Overnight lows will plunge into the minus teens Monday through to at least Thursday, while daytime highs will remain below zero in the mid minus single digits. On some nights, we may dip into the mid minus teens or colder. If we drop below -16.7°C, it would be the coldest temperature for so late in the season since 1872... Quite the impressive cold snap we've got to deal with. The following table shows the record lows and record low maximums for the next few days for you to refer to:


Date
Record low
Record low maximum
Apr 14
-16.7°C (1893)
-7.8°C (1880)
Apr 15
-16.7°C (1893)
-6.7°C (1875)
Apr 16
-16.7°C (1875)
-4.4°C (1910)
Apr 17
-13.3°C (1953)
-3.3°C (1953)

     It appears likely we'll see some warming by Easter Weekend... however, the magnitude of the warmup is in question. Unfortunately, an extended period of above normal temperatures is still nowhere in sight.

     Note that normal highs this week are in the 11-13°C range and normal lows around -1°C to -2°C (1981-2010 normal). As a result, we will be a good 15°C below normal and our daytime highs will be colder than our normal lows this week.

23 comments:

  1. Ridiculous is right. I'm so tired of these cold snaps that plunge us to 10-20C below normal and last a week. Whatever happened to a couple days below normal then back to normal or above? In the past 11 weeks, we've had just 10 days above normal, and even most of those days were barely 5C above normal. Sure hope this is winter's parting shot, and we finally move towards more normal and above normal weather! We're overdue!

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    1. Keep telling myself: It has to warmup eventually! That eventually couldn't come any sooner!

      I don't know about you Rob, but I'm not too optimistic we'll see a good turn to more consistent above normal temperatures in May... Mays have consistently not been overly warm in the last few decades... I hope things are different this year, but our hopes have been dashed quite often in the last several months.

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    2. I'm not sure how much longer Mother Nature can continue to punish us, but I'm hopeful we can turn the corner once our snow is gone. It's too depressing to think otherwise.

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  2. This is actually turning out to be worse than last year. Last April was awful but it certainly was nowhere near this cold in mid April like this year's mid April will be. This is awful.

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  3. JJ... How do you get blogspot to post replies under the relevant posts? I can't find anything in settings to do that. Thanks for any help..

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    1. Honestly, I'm not even sure. It just happened to work that way without me really allowing it consciously. It MIGHT be because you need the comment location to be ''embedded''... but I'm not at all sure.

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    2. Thanks JJ, we'll give that a try..

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    3. Yes, it did. Thanks!

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  4. all the way up to 22 in Toronto
    And 24 in Windsor
    , while we suffer from
    -15 - 20 lows this week...
    Really shows how deep
    This trouph is over
    Central North America
    . Just wish we where
    On the east side of these
    Troupes, and the west
    Side of the ridges like
    We never are...

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    Replies
    1. They'll see a 20°C drop for Tuesday as this arctic air pushes east.

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  5. Jj, I remember you saying that you would post monthly updates on the accuracy
    Of your winnipeg
    Forecast in February. I don't remember seeing anything
    In you March summary. Any results so far?

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    Replies
    1. Yes I've been gathering the stats since March 1st... just haven't gathered the results yet.

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  6. Well we did not drop to record values last night, now we wait and see if we do so tonight in which I think are chances of breaking the record low for April 15th is very good as the colder air settles in today. The forecast low for tonight is - 17C. The current record low for April 15th is -16.7 C which was set back in 1875. Remember that if we drop to 16.7 C or colder before midnight today that would break the record for today but I don't think that will happen.

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    1. No record low max neither with a high of -7.1°C as of 12pm. I personally hope we break at least one record in the next few days or else this cool down will stand for nothing...

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  7. Low of -13.2°C at the airport this morning... No record.

    Surprisingly, it was actually colder within the city with lows of -15.5°C at my place and -15.8°C in Charleswood.

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  8. I think our only chance for us to break a record will be on Thursday. Today and tomorrow's highs should be in the high minus single digits so a record low max is out of reach. Low tonight should also be warmer due to some cloud cover. I'm predicting a low of -13°C Thursday morning with a high of -3°C which flirts with the record lows.

    Looks like there's a clipper to watch now for Saturday into Saturday night. It doesn't look very significant. Too early to confirm timing and precipitation but let's hope the precip falls during the day instead of at night to avoid any snow accumulation. If we did, with warmer weather coming next week, the snow wouldn't last long anyway.

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  9. JJ, do you think Monday's forecast of 15C is too optimistic at this point?

    Thanks, Anon

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    Replies
    1. 15°C is on the high side given current indications. High single digits to low teens may be more reasonable... but it's too far out to say for sure.

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  10. i think the reason the ywg airport was warmer then the rest of the city this morning was due to no snow cover where they measure the temp at the airport. Many places in the rest of the city got colder becuase they have snowcover in their yards. many big feilds within the city have barely any snow to if any. anyone know why this is? is it becuase of all the sun the feilds recieve that front/ backyards would'nt?

    Thanks,Leon

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    Replies
    1. I suppose the sun is a factor Leon, however there is also the fact that when it's windy our yards literally 'trap' the snow and prevent it from blowing away like it would in a field. There has been a lot of drifting and blowing this winter and so there have been significant drifts and snow piles from plowing and shoveling. There's just more snow in our yards than there is in a field as a result.

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  11. Oh yeah, fforgot to mention that the automated snow censor at the airport may not actually have correct data. so i may be wrong saying thhat the airport has no snow. Although then must be another reason theres no snow there.

    Leon

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  12. Thanks agian jj. Did'nt think of drifting and blowing snow.

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