Cool Weather Continues

The rest of the week will bring more of the same: unseasonably cold temperatures.

Cold weather will continue for Winnipeg throughout the second half of the week as a persistent northwesterly continues to tap into Arctic air. Daytime highs will remain well below the seasonal value near 6°C over the coming days starting with a high near -2°C today that will slump towards -5°C by Friday. Overnight lows will keep with the trend as well, generally hovering near -15°C, about 10°C below seasonal.

Skies will be cloudier through the second half of the week than they were in the first. A sunny start to today will lead to mixed skies this afternoon as low-level instability develops. These clouds will dissipate as soon as the temperatures begins dropping in the evening. Quickly replacing them will be a more organized area of cloud associated with a weak low pressure system tracking across northern Montana into North Dakota. This will spread mostly cloudy skies into Winnipeg and the Red River Valley for Thursday. An area of organized light snow will likely spread eastwards through areas primarily south of the Trans-Canada Highway on Thursday morning, but flurries are possible for much of the day as another cold front slump southwards through the province. Skies will be back to mixed to mainly cloudy on Friday with a very slight chance of a flurry.

GDPS 300mb Height and Wind valid 12Z Thursday April 5, 2018
An entrenched and slow-moving vortex over southern Hudson Bay is sustaining a cold northwesterly flow over the Canadian Prairies

The wind won’t be too much of an issue today, but on Thursday they’ll pick up out of the northwest again up to 30 km/h. The winds will ease on Thursday night, then pick back up to 30 gusting 50 km/h on Friday. Brrr!

Long Range Outlook

The extended forecast hasn’t changed too much from our last forecast: a slow and gradual trend towards seasonal conditions. That said, what is considered seasonal is changing quickly now; the seasonal daytime high is increasing by 0.4°C per day right now, so today’s 6°C will be nearly 9°C by this time next week. That said, it is beginning to look like temperatures may return to seasonal values by the latter half of next week, so relatively speaking, a big warm-up might be in store next week!

Winnipeg’s seasonal daytime high is currently 6°C while the seasonal overnight low is -5°C.

Brad

Brad lives in Winnipeg with his wife and two children and is the founder of A Weather Moment. He has loved weather from a very young age and has followed that passion through his life so far. He received a B.Sc. in Earth Sciences with Specialization in Atmospheric Sciences and is currently employed in the field of meteorology. You can find the author as WeatherInThePeg on Mastodon.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *