Stormy & Wamer Weather Ahead

     Clouds will increase and thicken throughout the day today and winds will gradually increase to around 30 km/h this afternoon from the southeast. Despite the cloud, we should manage to reach about 7 or 8°C in Winnipeg today.... which seems very nice, but is still a good 5°C below normal.

     A fairly intense storm system moves in tonight. This system is quite tough to forecast across southern Manitoba due to concerns of precipitation type. Nonetheless, in Winnipeg, it is expected at this point that most of the precipitation will likely stay as rain, but some snow may mix in at times. Rain may be steady at times with 8-13 mm possible... which would be our most significant rainfall since September, 7 months ago. Areas to our north and northwest in the Parkland and Interlake regions will not be so lucky. Looks like a major snow event for them, especially in the Riding Mountain and Dauphin areas where 20 + cm is possible.

     With precipitation ending early in the morning, skies should clear somewhat in the afternoon tomorrow. We should reach around 10°C.

     The remainder of the weekend looks reasonable with seasonal highs in the low to mid teens for Sunday, and possibly a few degrees cooler on Monday. A few showers are possible Sunday night, but shouldn't amount to much.

     Next system to watch will be mid-late week with a major system south of the border. There is the potential for a significant rain event here Wednesday through to Friday... but it is uncertain how much we'll be impacted at this point.

     At this point, an extended period of above normal temperatures is not to be seen yet. Note that normal highs next week are in the 13-16°C range using 1981-2010 normals.

Record Lows Across Southern Manitoba This Morning

     Winnipeg airport dropped to -13.2°C this morning, which is not a record. Old record is -16.7°C in 1893. However, it was colder within city limits with lows of -15.5°C in St Vital and -15.8°C in Charleswood.

     The coldest areas overnight were in the Interlake and east of the RRV and east of Lake Winnipeg where lows below -20°C were common. The coldest spot in southern Manitoba, according to Environment Canada's stations, was -24.4°C in Berens River. This broke their 105 year old record of -21.7°C in 1909. The following map shows some of the lows this morning along with the record lows which are according to Environment Canada:

     Once again, we likely wont exceed the freezing mark today with highs near -2°C in Winnipeg. There will be some high thin cloud which will make it a fairly cloudy day today. The cloud should keep us a little warmer tonight likely only dropping around -9°C or so. Tomorrow will be similar to today, albeit a little sunnier.

     There is the potential for a record low Thursday morning with a low around -13°C expected. Old record low is -13.3°C in 1953. Old record low maximum is also -3.3°C in 1953 which we will come close to as well.

     Beyond that, a clipper system is possible for Saturday into Saturday night. It doesn't look overly significant, but some rain and snow are possible. It's too early to confirm amounts and dominant precipitation type.

     Otherwise, some warmer weather is expected for the long weekend and into next week.