Weekend Warmth Returns

Brad 1 Comment

Some absolutely beautiful weather is on tap heading into this weekend as a stretch of above-normal temperatures sets up over Southern Manitoba. An upper-level ridge building into Manitoba will bring with it a surge of warmer air that will allow our temperatures to soar into the mid-to-upper teens with plenty of sunshine. A brief hiccup in the nice weather will move through on Sunday, but then it looks like a quick rebound for the upper ridge, maintaining warmer than seasonal temperatures across Southern Manitoba.1

Today will be a transition day from the cooler air behind yesterday’s cold front into the incoming warm air spreading eastwards with the upper-level ridge. Mainly sunny skies will be in place over the Red River Valley with a high near 12°C. Winds will start off light out of the northwest and back to the south by evening; winds will remain fairly light through the day, though, up to only around 10–15km/h. Tonight will bring clear skies and a low near +1°C and light winds.

Saturday will be a beautiful day. Full sun combined with the warming temperatures aloft will allow our daytime high to climb to – a nearly 10°C above normal – 18°C. The winds will be, as they are often when we see big warm-ups, pretty stiff out of the south with sustained winds to 30–40km/h with gusts to around 50km/h. Winds will slowly taper off overnight, but with all the warm air in place over the region, we’ll see a balmy overnight low near 8°C with a bit of cloud cover moving in overnight.

GDPS 6hr QPF valid 18Z Sunday April 12, 2015
The GDPS is forecasting a line of showers moving through Southern Manitoba on Sunday morning, shown by this 6-hour precipitation accumulation forecast.

Sunday will be more of an unsettled day as a cold front moves through the region. The day will start off with increasing cloud and likely some showers moving through with the cold front. Behind the front, we’ll see clearing skies making for a sunny afternoon and a high near 14°C. Unfortunately, the winds will pick up out of the northwest behind the front and be pretty breezy; by late afternoon the winds will likely be up to 40 gusting 60km/h out of the northwest. There may be a slight chance of some late-day showers for Winnipeg, but it really ends up depending on the exact track of the upper-level low as it moves through. It looks most likely that any wrap-around showers will remain north of the city.

Sunday night will bring mainly clear skies and a low near +2°C as cooler air works in aloft.

Next Week At A Glance

Next week looks to continue the warm streak with daytime highs in the mid-teens. Conditions look fairly dry with most the precipitation associated with any lows moving through remains further north into central Manitoba.

After a week of cooler temperatures, it looks like we finally get to switch into a more prolonged period of spring-like warmth.

  1. Seasonal daytime highs for this time of year in Winnipeg are around 10°C.↩

Mild Weather Returns to Winnipeg

Brad Leave a comment

A return to spring weather has arrived for Southern Manitoba with temperatures returning to seasonal to above-seasonal values for the remainder of the week. Plenty of clouds will be in place today, but sunnier skies will move in for Thursday and Friday, making for a great end to the work week.

Wednesday
8°C / -3°C
Mainly cloudy

Thursday
10°C / -2°C
A few clouds; chance of showers

Friday
10°C / -2°C
Mainly sunny

Today will be a fairly cloudy day thanks to a low pressure system moving through the Northern Plains of the United States. While the precipitation associated with the system will remain south of the border, a fair amount of cloud will push into our region making for a bit of a dreary day. Fortunately, temperatures will return to seasonal values with a high today near 8°C. Clouds will clear out overnight with the temperature dropping to around –3°C.

GPDS 6hr. QPF – Valid 00Z Friday April 10, 2015
A weak disturbance slumping southwards into the Red River Valley will bring a slight chance of showers to Winnipeg on Thursday.

Thursday and Friday will both be mainly sunny days with highs near 10°C and lows near –2°C. Little in the way of weather is expected on Friday, however tomorrow a weak disturbance slumping southeastwards will push into the Red River Valley and bring just a slight chance of showers late in the day to Winnipeg.

A Look At The Weekend

This weekend looks quite nice for Southern Manitoba with daytime highs in the teens and plenty of sunshine. Winds look fairly calm through the weekend, although they may end up breezy out of the south sometime Sunday for a few hours as a tough line approaches. As the trough moves through, we may see some shower activity on Sunday afternoon.

All in all a fairly nice weekend with a welcome return to warmer temperatures.

Gradually Warming Up

Scott Leave a comment

Temperatures will gradually warm this week as we move back into more spring-like conditions.

Monday will remain cool as a strong high pressure sits just off to our north
Monday will remain cool as a strong high pressure sits just off to our north

Monday

Monday
1°C / -4°C
Mainly Sunny

Today will remain on the cool side as a surface high remains parked off to our north. This high will keep arctic-ish air over southern Manitoba, suppressing high temperatures to near the freezing mark. Winds will be light however, making for a pleasant, but slightly chilly day.

Tuesday

Tuesday
4°C / -1°C
Mix of sun and cloud

Tuesday will see a slight uptick in temperatures over Monday, with values climbing a few degrees above zero. Skies will be a mixture of sun and cloud and winds will be breezy from the east. There may be a bit of snow on Tuesday night as a strong upper-impulse moves through, but accumulations will be small.

Wednesday

Wednesday
7°C / 0°C
Mainly Sunny

Wednesday will see temperatures increase further, with highs in the mid to upper single digits in southern Manitoba. Skies should remain mainly sunny with light winds, making for a nice day!

Long Range

The long range forecast shows increasingly warm temperatures toward the end of the week. Models suggest that above-normal weather will last into mid-April at least. This means highs frequently into the teens and very long range models even show our first 20C readings of the year!

Elsewhere in Weather News: April 4th, 2015

Matthieu Leave a comment

Rare Rainfall Event Strikes Chile

A rainfall event that occurred near the end of March in Northern Chile did some major damage to numerous towns in the region. The storm system that brought the rain was the product of an upper level low that remained nearly stationary for several days in the area. The rainfall amounts, which might seem insignificant to Manitobans, are significant for that area because the storm system brought rain to one of the few places on the planet that receives very little precipitation every year – the Atacama Desert.

[map autofit=”1″ disable_scrollwheel=”1″][pin]Santiago[/pin][pin]Antofagasta[/pin][/map]

The flooding and mud flow event affected about 30,000 Chileans and destroyed 5,900 houses.  In the hardest hit regions only about 65mm of rain fell, but due to the extremely dry soil conditions in the region – which have trouble letting rainfall percolate through – flooding occurred. According to Wundergroud meteorologist Jeff Masters, Antofagasta recorded 24.4mm of rain in 24 hours while their average precipitation per year is 3.8mm. Santiago, Chile recorded 35.7mm of rain during the event, which is a significant amount in comparison to the 6mm total rainfall they typically receive during the entire month of March.

Aerial images of a flooded region in the Atacama just south of Antofagasta. (Source: Reuters)
Aerial images of a flooded region in the Atacama just south of Antofagasta. (Source: Reuters)

The flooding rains triggered flash floods which swept away cars, houses and washed away one of Chile’s main highways in 3 places in the normally arid part of northern Chile. In total, 24 people have perished from this event and there are still over 50 that are missing where the mud flows occurred. Rescue efforts are still ongoing for people in remote locations and the cleanup in the towns has begun as 7,000 troops have been brought in.

In other news, the Philippines are expecting typhoon Maysak to make landfall this weekend. Maysak was once a super typhoon (category 5) but has since encountered cooler waters of the Western Pacific and has weakened to a category 1 typhoon as of Friday night. The main risk with this storm is the heavy rainfall that it will bring to the Northern Philippines.