After enjoying a few days with daytime highs near the seasonal 0°C for this time of year, cooler weather is on its way to Southern Manitoba by the end of the week as a late-week disturbance ushers in cooler air as a northwesterly flow returns.
Fortunately, seasonal weather is on tap for the next couple days with little in the way of weather expected. Today will be pleasant with a high near 0°C under mixed skies. Winds will remain calm through the day. Skies will gradually clear tonight as some drier air works into the Red River Valley from the west. Temperatures will drop to around -8 or -9°C.
Thursday will be a pleasant day with cloudier skies and a high near 0°C once again. Winds will be light out of the east. The cloud cover is thanks to an incoming low pressure system that will track out of Southern Alberta into the Northern Plains of the United States and eastwards towards the Great Lakes. At this point, no precipitation is expected through the daytime on Thursday.
Colder Weather Arrives Thursday Night
Thursday night will bring a chance for some flurry activity as a cold front slumps through the region. It looks like any snow that occurs will be relatively disorganized and not particularly intense, so no significant snowfall accumulations are expected. Winds will increase to around 20km/h out of the north by the end of the night as temperatures drop to around -9 or -10°C.
The northerly winds will continue on Friday, increasing out of the northwest to around 30-40km/h, marking the arrival of significantly cooler air to the Red River Valley. Temperatures will stay steady or recover only slightly under mostly sunny skies. Winds look to taper off Friday night with the temperature dropping to an overnight low of around -24°C.
Cool Outlook
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the cold air is going to go anywhere quickly. Cold air will be entrenched through the weekend giving us daytime highs 10-15°C below normal. By the beginning of next week, the coldest air will shift off into Ontario, however cool air will still remain leaving us around 5-10°C below normal.
The below-normal temperatures are forecast to stick around through most of the rest of March. I suppose we can all take solace that below-normal temperatures in March aren’t nearly as cold as below-normal temperatures in January.
