To begin with, the system brought record winds and high temperatures to Saskatchewan and Alberta Wednesday morning. Edmonton Int'l saw a peak gust of 106 km/h, the strongest gust ever recorded in January. Old record was a gust of 105 km/h on January 8, 1967. Even more impressive, wind gusts reached 120 km/h at the Edmonton municipal airport near downtown, which was not only the strongest ever in January but also an all-time record for any time of the year! Old record there was 117 km/h on June 6, 1960.
Same story in Saskatchewan, where wind gusts reached 115 km/h in Saskatoon, the strongest ever recorded in January as well in the city. Old record was 111 km/h in 1986.
Although not as strong, wind gusts of 80 to 100 km/h were recorded in southern Manitoba yesterday afternoon and evening. Peak gust was 104 km/h in Portage la Prairie, not a record. Winds in Winnipeg reached 80-85 km/h before midnight and behind the cold front.
Here's a list of maximum wind gusts yesterday and today in the 3 Prairies provinces as of 9 am:
The record winds caused semis to flip over, and lots of additional damage. A summary of the damage around Edmonton can be read here and near Saskatoon here.
Several record highs were also broken yesterday, including in Winnipeg. A high of 3.3°C at the airport broke the old record of 2.2°C in 1973. Also of note, this was a 30.7°C increase from a low of -27.4°C in the morning! Here's a list of other records broken across the Prairies yesterday according to Environment Canada (note, not ALL records are included here):
Some of these locations not only broke but smashed their old record by 2 to 4 degrees.
The winds have created blizzard conditions in the RRV this morning, as seen in the following webcam image of Emerson:
Well, just had a look ahead and yes I hate to say this but it looks like the deep freeze willl be coming back with a vengeance after the 23rd as a mother lode of arctic air is setting it's sights on us at that time.
ReplyDeleteYes you are correct, the end of the month looks generally colder. Hopefully it is not as extreme and prolonged as in December.
DeleteAnother clipper system is expected tomorrow late day and tomorrow night. Models have been raising snowfall amounts in latest runs with 5-10 cm not out of the question. Strong winds on the backside of the system early Saturday morning may create some significant blowing snow again... however winds don't look as strong as last night.
ReplyDeleteWinds don't look like as big a problem anymore for tomorrow morning... but could still see some drifting snow. 4-8 cm looks like a good range for Winnipeg for this evening and tonight.
DeleteI'm calling it a total of 4.4 cm at my place in south St Vital from last night's snow. Snow depth 37 cm.
ReplyDeleteA chance for light snow again late this afternoon and evening, and again tomorrow afternoon and evening. Little accumulation expected with 1-3 cm possible, but we shouldn't get higher than that.
ReplyDeleteMore snow today with another clipper system, a couple cm likely. Tomorrow will be downright frigid with a high only around -25°C.
ReplyDeleteBig warmup Thursday night after bottoming out around -30°C in the morning. Rising temperatures Thursday night, with highs approaching freezing mark on Friday.
Cooling back this weekend unfortuantely.
Yet another moderate clipper system today, a little stronger than anticipated with 3-5 cm today. All these clipper systems lately has been largely thanks to a persistent northwest flow bringing the storm track for these clipper systems right through southern Manitoba.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, no major change in this generally cold weather and occasional clipper systems is expected in the near future as this northwest flow persists.
Blowing snow expected tonight thanks to some strong winds behind today's low.
Flashback JANUARY 2012:
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bAi4n21gc1U/T0__BRbTcfI/AAAAAAAAAa0/QiSsXfesiWQ/w765-h574-no/A.jpg
Amazing... Just a distant memory now.
Just thought I add this: That ridge on the west coast will help bring in some incredible temperatures into the Yukon Thursday. Forecasts calling for highs well above zero in the southern Yukon, around Whitehorse for example. EC even has highs of 10-13°C... not sure if that's realistic or not as I am not at all familiar with the climate history of that area. We need that ridge to break down if we want to get out of this northwesterly flow!
ReplyDeleteJJ, are there any signs that the western ridge will break down over the next few weeks?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anon
There have been hints at that ridge breaking down or at least weakening, in February... whether or not that materialises is yet to be seen. The same general pattern is expected to continue for at least another week or two... so overall I wouldn't expect any dramatic changes around here for a while.
DeleteOn the bright side, we're about half way through winter and pretty soon our normals will start getting warmer!
JJ, I' m doing a 2-3 minuate speach on low pressure systems, esaq it seems that no sites have any info. Could you please give me some?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
C.I.Whicher
By the way, it is expected to be warmer in the Yukon than parts of Florida on Friday! Highs around 9-10°C in the Whitehorse area expected (which will be close to all-time January records), versus a high of 7°C forecast in Jacksonville, Florida. Just goes to show how wacky the jet stream is at the moment.
ReplyDelete