Roller Coaster Ride

     A clipper system moving into central Manitoba brought quite a roller coaster ride to southern Manitoba today. The day started very mild with temperatures of 2 or 3°C. The system brought a brief band of steady rain to much of southern Manitoba this morning, dropping a good 1 to 3 mm in general. This is quite unusual for this time of year, and is the most rain in December since 2005.
   
     The system brought exceptional snowfall to central Manitoba today with 45 cm measured at Norway House and 20 cm in Mafeking (Mafeking is the town that saw 65 cm of snowfall on Nov 10). It's turning out to be a brutal winter in central Manitoba!

     Temperatures plummeted this afternoon and winds increased. Everything has frozen up, and snow and blowing snow have begun. It looks like these periods of snow and blowing snow will continue for the majority of the evening before things push out overnight. Temperatures which have fallen to near -10°C now will begin to stabilize with lows tonight in the high minus teens.

     Tomorrow will be cool with highs barely reaching -10°C. However, the cool down will be brief, as we go back up the roller coaster Wednesday with rising temperatures overnight through the day into the evening. We may get close to the freezing mark again. Again it will be brief as temperatures cool late week with the potential for some flurries Thursday.

     Beyond that things are uncertain right now as the stormy pattern continues into early next week when a more significant cool down will be possible.