The cold weather continues in Winnipeg for much of this week with only a brief respite mid-week of some near-seasonal temperatures. Snow-wise, a weak system moving through today will bring a couple centimetres of fresh snow, but otherwise no significant snowfall is in the forecast.
Today’s weather will be dominated by a weak shortwave disturbance sliding southwards through the province. Light snow will push into the Red River Valley from the northwest this morning and taper off this evening. Accumulations will be relatively low with this snow; for the most part, just 1-2cm is expected to accumulate. As the system begins heading past us this afternoon, gusty northwesterly winds to 20-30km/h will develop, making it feel more like the minus 30’s than the high of -20°C.
Behind this system, another Arctic ridge will build into the southern Prairies, reinforcing the cold air. Here in the Red River Valley, temperatures will dip to around -26°C tonight with wind chills in the -33 to -37 range. In the southwest corner of the province, temperatures could fall as far as -30 to -31°C, which would result in wind chills near or slightly below -40.
Tuesday will be a fairly quiet day over Winnipeg & the Red River Valley with mixed skies and a high near -20°C. Winds will be fairly light.
The next system moving into the Prairies will spread cloud across Southern Manitoba on Tuesday night, somewhat limiting our overnight low to around -24°C.
Wednesday is a bit trickier, but either way things pan out, the weather won’t be too significant. The big story will be that near-seasonal temperatures will finally move into the Red River Valley with daytime highs climbing into the -13 to -15°C range. Skies will be mainly cloudy.
Depending on how far east the disturbance moving through the region pushes, we may see some light snow through the day. If it remains to our west, as guidance suggests, it seems probable that we could see some very light flurry activity across the region.
Temperatures will remain comparatively mild on Wednesday night with overnight lows near -20°C.
Colder air is set to return for the second half of the week with another shot of sub-20°C high temperatures likely this weekend.
