Early Winter Now Making the Record Books

Clear skies, light wind, a frigid air mass behind yesterday's cold front and a fresh snow pack combined this morning to produce some of the coldest temperatures we have seen this early in the season in parts of southern Manitoba in at least a century.

Winnipeg Airport dropped to -23.7°C this morning, obliterating the old record of -20.6°C in 1933 and 1966 for today. It is also the 3rd earliest occurrence of temperature below -23°C since 1872. The earliest were on November 3, 1873 and 1893. This also means that this is the coldest we have been this early in the season in over 120 years in Winnipeg.

Brandon Airport was the cold spot of southern Manitoba with a low of -26.3°C at the Airport. This broke their old record of -25.0°C in 1966 and was the 3rd earliest date to dip below -26°C since 1890.

A non-exhaustive list of records are included in the following table:

Location	New record	Old record	Record period(s)
Brandon	-26.3°C	-25.0°C (1966)	1890-present
Fisher Branch	-23.9°C	-21.0°C (1979)	1977-present
Winnipeg	-23.7°C	-20.6°C (1933, 1966)	1872-present
Roblin	-23.5°C	-18.5°C (1985)	1969-present
Pilot Mound	-23.2°C	-21.7°C (1966)	1938-1956, 1958-present
Gretna	-21.3°C	-15.6°C (1957, 1973)	1955-present
Swan River	-20.7°C	-17.8°C (1911, 1960)	1908-present
Steinbach	At least -19.9*	-19.5°C (1979)	1956-2004, 2006-present
Carman	-17.9°C	-15.0°C (1996)	1904, 1984-85, 1990-present
*Steinbach actual low (Mb Ag station) won’t be known until tomorrow morning. Temperature given is an 8 am temperature.

The cold spot in Manitoba was at the Leaf Rapids Manitoba Fire station in northern Manitoba with a low of about -31°C.

There is the potential for record low maximums today. Another cold night tonight across southern Manitoba with some -20°C lows possible. We moderate somewhat this weekend and we might exceed the freezing mark on a day or two early next week. It probably won't enough to melt away the snow pack. The current snow pack began November 5. If snow depth remains above 2 cm through to spring, it would be the 6th earliest starting date for the longest lasting snow pack of the winter since 1955.

Note that on this date last year, Winnipeg reached a record 18.8°C.

New post for comments

Warmth Records Shattered October 20

It was an unseasonably warm day across southern Manitoba today (October 20). Widespread records were broken with highs in the mid twenties.

Winnipeg Airport reached 25.0°C, breaking the old record of 23.9°C in 1875 and 1958. This marked the 7th latest date to reach 25°C on record since 1872. The latest was on October 27, 1938 with a high of 25.6°C. It is rare to reach 25°C this late in the season. In fact, today marked the latest date to reach 25°C in Winnipeg since 1963, Winnipeg's warmest October.

Widespread highs between 25°C and 27°C occurred in southeastern Manitoba. The hotspot was Sprague with a high of 27.2°C. Beausejour (Manitoba Agriculture station) also reached 27.0°C. A list of records (non-exhaustive) follows:


Records October 20, 2017:
City or town....New Record....Old Record....Record Period(s)

Sprague..........27.2°C....23.9°C (1953)....................1915-present (ECCC)
Beausejour......27.0°C....20.6°C (1978)....................1960-2004 (ECCC), presently Mb Ag
Steinbach........26.3°C....23.3°C (1958)....................1956-2004 (ECCC), 2006-present (Mb Ag)
Winnipeg........25.0°C....23.9°C (1875 and 1958)....1872-present (ECCC)
Gretna.............24.6°C....23.9°C (1958)....................1955-present (ECCC)
Pinawa............24.0°C....20.6°C (1978)....................1915-1950, 1964-present (ECCC)
Wasagaming... 22.8°C....21.1°C (1973 and 1978)....1966-present (ECCC)
Gimli..............21.5°C....20.6°C (1953).....................1944-present (ECCC)

Cities that just missed out on records include Morden with a high of 25.1°C (record 27.2°C in 1927), Portage la Prairie with a high of 23.5°C (record 25.6°C in 1927), and Brandon with a high of 22.4°C (record 23.3°C in 1901).

Hopefully you are enjoying the warmth while it lasts. I can guarantee that it won't be this warm again until at least April! Much cooler conditions are expected next week.

First Hard Freeze at Winnipeg Airport

The first hard freeze of the season occurred at Winnipeg Airport this morning with a low of -2.2°C. This is four days later than the normal date of October 1. As the map below shows, most of the city did not freeze, with lows above freezing. The Forks only dropped to 4.8°C. Outside the city, most areas froze.

Some patchy frost is possible again tonight but lows don`t look to be as cold. The next few days actually look quite nice across southern Manitoba with lots of sunshine and seasonal to above seasonal temperatures. Highs in the mid to high teens are anticipated. A slight and brief cool down is expected in the second half of the weekend and to start next week. There is also not much precipitation in the forecast over the next 7 days. A few showers are possible over the weekend with the best chance being on Saturday. Accumulations, if any, look minimal.

Monthly Summaries

I will now be posting a monthly summary at the end of every month on my record books website. The link is below:

http://privaterecords.weebly.com/monthly-summaries

Please feel free to leave comments and suggestions in the comments section here or in the record books website.

Enjoy!