Temperatures are set to soar well above-seasonal this weekend as another blast of mild Pacific air surges eastwards across the Prairies.
Today will be the least pleasant of the coming few days in Southern Manitoba. A warm front pushing eastwards across the region will begin pushing warmer air into the Red River Valley, but alongside that prospective warmth will come those pesky southerly winds, picking up to around 40km/h by the afternoon. Those brisk winds will make our high of 3 or 4°C feel quite a bit cooler than that.
On the bright side, the sun will make an appearance for much of the day. While there may be a bit of cloudiness remaining this morning, particularly south of Lake Winnipeg where some lake-effect drizzle or flurries will be tapering off, a drier flow pushing into the region will clear skies and bring us plenty of sunshine for the afternoon.
Expect temperatures to dip to around 1°C tonight with a few clouds moving through and breezy conditions continuing.
Saturday will be a very pleasant day with mainly sunny conditions and much lighter winds than today. Temperatures will climb to around 8°C this afternoon, about 9°C above the seasonal average daytime high of –1°C. Temperatures will drop to around +1°C tonight with fairly cloudy skies developing. There are some hints that fog or drizzle may form over the Red River Valley on Saturday night, so we’ll keep an eye on that.
Sunday will see morning cloud dissipate alongside any fog or drizzle that manages to develop and be left with a sunny afternoon and temperatures soaring over 10°C above normal to around 10°C. Winds will not be much of an issue, making it an absolutely beautiful day.
Mild Weather Continues
As we continue to push further into meteorological winter, we generally expect the effects of a strong El Niño to become more pronounced, and so far, that’s exactly what we’ve been seeing as temperature anomalies intensify across North America.
The warm weather is expected to continue for our region, with above-normal temperature anomalies are continue to be forecast for the region. Despite the fact that our average daytime high continues to fall, daytime highs on the positive side of freezing continue to persist in the long-range forecast.
Other than temperatures, little precipitation is in the forecast as well; despite multiple systems tracking through the region, the bulk of precipitation is expected to our north and south, leaving us with some windy days, but still looking for the first big snowfall. That said, the longer we can keep the snow off the ground, the longer our above-zero highs can persist!
