Author: 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.

Miserable Weather Will Slowly Move Aside

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A couple more days of miserable weather are in store before we move toward a nicer weather pattern. Conditions will gradually improve as the week progresses.

Potential rainfall on Monday, May 28, 2012

An upper level low will generate rainfall over a large part of Manitoba and Saskatchewan on Monday

Monday will be another cloudy, cool, and even rainy day. A major upper-level low pressure system (as seen above) will be sitting over Southern Manitoba for most of Monday. This system will generate rainfall through much of Central and Southern Manitoba during the day, which won’t allow temperatures to rise much higher than the low or mid teens. Rainfall will be more persistent through Central Manitoba, where light rain will be present through much of the day. Areas further south are more likely to see showers in the morning, followed by more continuous rain in the afternoon and evening hours. Total accumulations in the south won’t be heavy, but as much as 5 or 10mm may accumulate by late Monday evening. Some light shower activity may persist in the Red River Valley and Eastern Manitoba on Tuesday morning, however Tuesday is generally expected to be a dry but cool day with high temperatures in the low teens.

Weather Map for Thursday, May 31, 2012

High pressure will move into our region later this week, bringing drier weather

Conditions will improve as we move later into the week with a high pressure system sliding into the region. The Wednesday to Friday period should be dry, barring perhaps an isolated shower or two, with temperatures rebounding back to near normal values. Wednesday’s temperatures should be in the mid to high teens in Southern Manitoba, while temperatures on Thursday and Friday will hover around the 20C mark. A series of low pressure systems are currently forecast to traverse Manitoba next weekend and as such the forecast for that time period is quite uncertain. More updates on the weekend weather will be available towards the middle of the week.

Cool, Wet Weather For The Weekend

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Winnipeggers: get ready for a shock. The next few days are going to be startling chilly with daytime highs over 10°C below normal and overnight lows over 5°C below normal. Another thing that will be noticably absent other than warmth? The sun will make only a few rare appearances over the next several days as another system pushes into Southern Manitoba, bringing another round of rain and thunderstorms to the Red River Valley.

850mb Temperatures valid 00Z Friday

850mb temperatures vaild at 00Z Sat. May 26 (Friday evening). An elongated cold trough is sweeping across Southern Manitoba, bringing 850mb temperatures in the -2 to -5°C range.

This cool weather has brought late-season (or is it early-season now?) snow to several communities over Western Manitoba including The Pas, Flin Flon and higher elevations over SW Manitoba (Duck Mountain & Riding Mountain areas). A few leftover flurries will scoot across the Interlake this morning and exit out of the province. The Red River Valley wil be spared, however we’ll be stuck under low clouds with a daytime high that struggles to make it to 10°C.

Tonight, a widespread frost potential exists over the most of Southern Manitoba. As a surface ridge moves into our area, winds will abate and we’ll see the cloud begin to break up a bit this evening. The greatest potential for frost looks to be over Southwestern Manitoba in the Virden, Melita, Pilot Mound & Brandon regions. Further east, here in the Red River Valley, some scattered clouds and a bit of moisture trapped in the valley should help temperatures stay above freezing, with overnight lows in the 2-3°C range. Areas outside the City of Winnipeg in the RRV certainly have a slight risk of a light frost. Winnipeg will likely be frost-free, with an off-chance of patchy frost in outlying areas near the Perimeter Highway.

Saturday will be our transition day with temperatures reaching 13-14°C and cloud streaming northwards from the Dakotas with the next incoming system. Rain will push up towards the International Border by morning, likely staying in the States but certainly poses the chance of a few showers along the border. The rain will stay near the border until Sunday, when the next big northward push arrives.

24. hour precipitation accumulation Saturday morning to Monday morning](https://img.skitch.com/20120525-mkq1sh9w3aa3twa7r6stuq9j2q.png)

Precipitation accumulation from the GEM-GLB model for Saturday morning to Monday morning. A broad swath of rain is forecast to fall from extreme SW Saskatchewan through Southern Manitoba.

And what a push it will be! Showers and thunderstorms will rapidly develop into an expansive area of rain on Saturday night, slowly pushing northwards across the Red River Valley. Most regions across Southern Manitoba should expect rain to start fairly early on Sunday and last through most of the day. Rain will likely taper off from west to east overnight, with only a few wrap-around showers moving across the RRV on Monday. It’s still early to give accurate estimates of rainfall totals for this next system, however in general, most regions across Southern Mantioba look to see at least 10-20mm of rainfall, with the potential for nearly 30mm in some areas of the RRV if some embedded convection can get going. Regions of Southwestern Manitoba that end up north/northwest of the main upper low track will see higher amounts as well, with 20-30mm of rain likely. This isn’t the best news for this year’s Teddy Bears Picnic, but hopefully shouldn’t dampen spirits too much at an event that has, historically, had to deal with some pretty awful weather. Wait, I’m getting deja vu…

Conditions look to improve through the middle of next week, with temperatures pushing back towards the 20°C mark and some sun finally making an appearance. That’s a ways to go, though, so grab your slippers and heat up some soup! We have some great stay-inside weather coming up. We’ll be sure to keep a close eye on this system and provide updates in the comments.

Some Simple, Seasonal Weather

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After a hectic few days across Southern Manitoba, Winnipeg is in for a few relatively calm, seasonal days before the next system moves into the region this weekend.

We’ll see the clouds breaking up this morning with a temperature that makes it up to around 19°C by this afternoon. We’ll see a slight chance of showers this afternoon, however they shouldn’t amount to very much and will quickly move out this evening. Tonight’s low will be around 10°C here in Winnipeg. Thursday and Friday will bring us a mix of sun and clouds with chances of afternoon showers across most of the Red River Valley as the upper low from yesterday’s system slowly tracks out of the Province. The daytime highs over the next couple days should be near 19°C.

A more significant system is forecast to move into our region this weekend, bringing what currently looks like a pretty rainy day to this year’s Teddy Bears Picnic.

Stormy Weather To Return to Southern Manitoba

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After a cool night, temperatures will rebound nicely today before more unsettled weather pushes into the province tonight and lingers through mid-week.

850mb temperatures valid Tuesday Evening

850*mb* temperatures valid 00Z Wed May 23 (Tuesday Evening). Warm and cold front are represented by red and blue lines, respectively. Orange arrows represent warm air lifting northwards over the warm front.

Temperatures today will work their way to 20°C today with increasing cloud. The first of several impulses forecast to track across Southern Manitoba will push a warm front across the Red River Valley late this afternoon, bringing with it a good chance of showers
through regions along the Trans-Canada highway and northwards into the Interlake. Regions in the southern half of the Red River Valley will see just a chance of showers through the afternoon and evening today.

Tomorrow, a low pressure system will push into North Dakota, strengthening a warm front draped across the region. Southern Manitoba will stay north of the warm front, keeping daytime highs in the 20-23°C range. Strong capping will restrict surface-based thunderstorms to Central/Southern North Dakota where a cold front advancing across the Plains will help trigger storms later in the day. For us, however, we’ll be in great placement for the development of nocturnal convection. A strong 30-40kt low-level jet overriding the warm front will pump fairly moist air northwards; dewpoints at 850mb over Southern Manitoba are expected to rise to the mid-teens. Combined with negative lifted indicies, CAPE values are expected to climb to nearly 1500J/kg.

This will likely result in the development of showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday evening, developing somewhere over Southern Manitoba and pushing northeastwards through the night. Nocturnal convection is always a very tricky thing to forecast, so we’ll definitely keep a close eye on things and provide updates in the comments as we get closer.

The upper low associated with this system will push across the Prairies through the week, bringing a mix of sun and clouds and some unsettled weather and more chances of showers.