Bundle Up... For Now

     The cold front went through early this morning ushering in frigid arctic air and strong gusty winds. Winds will be from the north at 30 to 40 gusting to 50 or 60 km/h much of the day today, and temperatures will continue to fall slowly, getting closer and close to -20. These are creating significant wind chills in the -20s today, with wind chills in the -30s and approaching the -40 mark tonight and tomorrow. Be sure to bundle up!

     Tonight could potentially be our first -30 C of the winter, although it will be a close call. Most forecasts call for lows near -27 to -29 C. It wont warm up very nicely tomorrow, with highs barely exceeding -20 C. At least it will be sunny and winds will be lighter than today... :)

Friday morning temperatures - GEM model. Source - link on right hand side of blog as well -->

     Saturday morning would be the next chance at -30 C if we don't hit it Friday morning, although the chance Saturday is lower. Winds switching to westerly will likely keep them from plummeting too low Saturday morning. Those westerly winds will warm us up for the weekend with highs Saturday likely closer to our normal high of -9 C, with highs near -11 or -12. Sunday will mark the return to slightly above normal temperatures in the minus single digits.

     So this arctic outbreak will be fairly short lived with temperatures likely to remain above normal throughout much of next week, good news if you want our warm winter to continue to live up to its name.

     Meanwhile in other news, the cold arctic arctic air needs to be somewhere, and if it isn't significantly present here, then where is it? Europe has been having brutal cold and snow in the past couple weeks, and that seems to be continuing in many areas. Ice has started to form along major rivers, including in Paris, meaning icebreakers have had to be used for the first time in several years. Link to this story below:
TWN - City of Paris dusts off its river icebreaker, Dutch skate on canals in Amsterdam

Super-Warm Sunday

     Another crazy day in Manitoba this winter with temperatures 15 to 20 C above normal today. Abundant sunshine and westerly downlope winds allowed for temperatures to rise well above zero. Most notable was in the western RRV. A few records were broken, although not many. Some areas were very close to breaking their records though. Winnipeg Airport's high of 6.8 C was just shy of the previous record of 7.2 C in 1963.

Records broken in Manitoba today:

Location . . . . . . . . . . Today's High . . . . . . . . . . Old record . . . . . . . . . . Records began

Pilot Mound                      8.8 C                            8.3 (1963)                            1939
Melita                                6.3 C                            1.7 (2002)                            1993
Fisher Branch                  5.6 C                            4.5 (1991)                            1978
Churchill                          -2.0 C                          -5.6 (1961)                            1932


Also some incredible highs which did not break records:

Location . . . . . . . . . . Today's High


McCreary                         9.9 C
Carman                           9.3 C
Portage                            7.9 C
Morden                             7.9 C
Gretna                              7.9 C
Winnipeg The Forks        7.6 C
Winnipeg A                      6.8 C
Brandon                           5.7 C
Pinawa                             5.0 C
Steinbach Ag                    4.9 C
Gimli                                 3.7 C

     Hopefully you got the chance to enjoy this spectacular day, because tomorrow is the beginning of a change. A cold front will swing through tonight ushering in drastically cooler temperatures behind it. Temperatures will likely steady or even continue to fall tomorrow afternoon into the minus teens by evening. Although of course, this is just closer to normal :P It will feel much colder with the wind, with blustery north winds of 40 gusting to 50 or 60 km/h expected. Tuesday will be closer to normal as well with morning lows approaching -20 C, and daytime highs struggling to reach -10 C.

Overnight tonight

     After a brief warm-up Wednesday with highs in the mid minus single digits, things will only get colder thereafter. Thursday through Sunday look downright frigid with lows well into the minus twenties and highs between -15 and -20 C.

     Next week looks like the return of above-normal temperatures, although as usual, stay tuned for the latest updates...

P.S. Very little in the way of snow expected in the next week.

Fog in the Valley

     The skies just didn't quite clear as expected in the city today.

     Although, clearing was not far away. Regions as close as the western RRV cleared nicely today, which gave way to very warm temperatures. +5 in Portage , +6 in Morden and +7 in McCreary where it is sunny! The fog was able to clear out in those areas thanks to a westerly wind which dried things out.

Emerson late this afternoon

     Here in the bottom of the RRV, only got to -4 C in WPG, and the fog has just stayed put all afternoon locally. And locally is the key word, as the sun has showed in areas as close as Gimli, Steinbach and Emerson. The wind here has stayed southerly, not ideal for drying.

     Fog will likely rethicken again tonight, which will mark the 4th night in a row of dense fog and hoar frost... Fog should begin to clear tomorrow as winds begin to shift a little more westerly, although we'll have to wait and see.

Fog this morning in WPG. You can normally
see an open field in the background.

     Sunday will likely be the nicest day of the weekend. With winds picking up from the south west, the fog will be gone, allowing for very warm temperatures. The potential is there for temperatures of 2 to 4 C above zero if skies clear out as planned. Some areas, especially in the western RRV could get even warmer than that. Highs between 6 and 8 C are definitely a possibility. Our non-winter continues...

     Sunday night a cold front is expected to drift south from the north, allowing for temperatures to take a dive Monday. Very strong winds from the north are expected Monday, so expect it to feel much colder than we've been accustomed to. At this point, it appears lows near minus twenty are likely Tuesday morning so enjoy these warm temperatures while we still have them!