More Mild Weather Ahead

Southern Manitoba will see seasonably warm temperatures today as mild air streams into the region aloft.
Southern Manitoba will see seasonably warm temperatures today as mild air streams into the region aloft.

The Red River Valley will bask once again in above-normal temperatures as another shot of warm air pushes up from the south. We’ll have mixed skies and a somewhat stiff southerly wind accompanying the warmer temperatures, but it should still be fairly pleasant for mid-November nonetheless.

Today

Friday

7°C / -1°C
A mixed sky; mild and windy.

We’ll see mixed skies develop today with some patchy fog throughout the Red River Valley this morning which means, especially when combined with some ice on the roads, drivers – especially highway driving – should take care if travelling through the earlier hours of the morning. Winds will increase to 30–50km/h out of the south by midday as the warmer air pushes in. Temperatures will climb to around 6–7°C, perhaps a degree higher if the clouds break up sooner than later, for a daytime high some 10°C above normal! More cloud will roll in tonight as another disturbance begins pushing into Central Manitoba. A band of snow will set up through the Parkland region eastwards through the northern Interlake, but here in the Red River Valley we’ll just see increasing cloud through the night as we drop to a low of only around –1°C.

The Weekend

Saturday

4°C / -3°C
Cloudy & mild.

Saturday will bring more mild weather despite having mostly cloudy skies through the day. Precipitation is unlikely for us; at this point it appears that everything or to our east. If the entire setup ends up a little further west, we might see a very slight risk of a shower, but as I said, I think that’s quite unlikely. Other than that, Saturday will be quite an uneventful day here in Winnipeg. Winds will be light as we sit in the middle of a large surface trough stationed over the area.

Sunday

↘ -5°C / -12°C
A mix of sun and cloud.

Sunday will see cooler air to our NW finally pushing back into the region. Our temperature will drop to near –5°C through the morning hours and then remain there for the rest of the day. Sunday night will see the true return of the Arctic air as temperatures dip all the way into the minus teens. Winds will be out of the northwest at 20–30km/h. No precipitation is expected. Or is it?

12hr. Precipitation accumulations from the NAM heading into Sunday morning.
12hr. Precipitation accumulations from the NAM heading into Sunday morning.

While most models are pushing the system that will be in the area the next few days off to our east as it intensifies on Sunday, the NAM has hinted at it not pushing off quite so quickly. In one of its solution, the system intensifies further west, developing an area of heavy snow right on top of the Red River Valley. If this solution panned out, that would mean easily 10–20cm of snow by the end of Sunday. At this point, though, I don’t quite have enough faith in the NAM to say it’s likely. There’s overwhelming consensus throughout every other Canadian and European model that things will move off to the east, to the point where this solution of the NAM can’t be looked at as anything more than an anomaly.

Sometimes these interesting little anomalies end up being the right answer though, so we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on things and providing updates if things trend towards a snowier solution on Sunday.

One Warm Day Before Flurries

Southern Manitoba will bask in temperatures well above-normal today before a cold front slumping southwards across the Prairies pushes through on Thursday, bringing seasonal weather back to the region.

Wednesday

9°C / -2°C
Warm and windy under a mixed sky.
Thursday

0°C / -6°C
Cloudy with flurries.
Friday

5°C / -4°C
Warming up with under a mixed sky.

Today

We’ll see a beautiful – albeit windy – day today as warm air washes over the Red River Valley. We’ll see winds out of the west at 30–50km/h as our temperature soars almost a whole 10°C above normal for this time of year to a daytime high of 8 or 9°C. We’ll see a mixed sky, but no precipitation is expected and this will almost certainly be the warmest temperatures in the area for the next long while.

Thursday

Our warm weather will be relatively short-lived, however, as a cold front dipping southwards across the Prairies pushes through on Thursday morning. With it’s passage, we’ll see much cooler daytime highs of only around 0°C under cloudy skies. The wind will be out of the northwest at 20–40km/h. We’ll also see flurries through the day, but no accumulations are expected. The flurries will taper off overnight as we drop to around –6°C.

Friday

Friday will see the return of warmer air as a rapidly deepening low pressure system north of 60 draws warmer air northwards over the Eastern Prairies. We’ll see our temperature here in Winnipeg climb to around 5°C with south/southwesterly winds developing through the day to 20–40km/h.

All in all not a bad few days to have in mid-November. We may see our first significant accumulating snow this weekend if a complex of low pressure systems align properly, but at this point there’s far too much uncertainty to say that much of a risk yet. We’ll see how things develop through the week and report back on Friday!

A Blast of Winter to Start the Week

We’ll get an early taste of winter today as an arctic high settles in over Manitoba.

It Will be a Cold Start to the Week with a Large Arctic High Over the Region

It Will be a Cold Start to the Week with a Large Arctic High Over the Region

Monday

Monday

Mainly Sunny
-10°C / -15°C

Today will be a cold day by early November standards. Temperatures will remain well below zero for the duration of the day thanks to an arctic high over the region. Thankfully the wind won’t be very strong, which is some slight consolation for what will otherwise be a rather algid day.

Tuesday

Tuesday

Mainly Sunny
-2°C / -6°C

Temperatures will begin to recover on Tuesday as a surge of warmer air begins pushing in from the west. Temperatures on Tuesday will be around or just below zero in Southern Manitoba, with a breezy wind out of the south-west.

Wednesday

Wednesday

Increasing Cloudiness
4°C / -2°C

Wednesday looks to be one of the warmer days this week, with temperatures in the mid positive single digits. The wind will be from the west or south-west and skies will be on the cloudy side.

Long Range

The late week period looks to remain on the warm side, with daytime temperatures staying above zero. Weather models suggest that another push of arctic air may be on the way for next weekend, though we can always hope that the models are wrong. At least we can say that no significant snow is currently in the forecast – but as today’s weather has shown us, winter is certainly not far off.

Elsewhere in Weather News: November 9th, 2013

Super Typhoon Haiyan Plows into Philippines

One of the strongest storms ever recorded on the planet formed this week in the Western Pacific and eventually made landfall over the Philippines on Thursday. Early estimates from satellite data suggest that this super typhoon was the fourth strongest ever recorded and strongest to make landfall, since record keeping began.


Impressive image of Haiyan Thursday afternoon as it neared peak intensity, about 5 hours before making landfall. Extremely cold cloud tops can be seen around the eye. (Source: Co. State University)
Impressive image of Haiyan Thursday afternoon as it neared peak intensity, about 5 hours before making landfall. Extremely cold cloud tops can be seen around the eye. (Source: Co. State University)

Haiyan brought just about every type of severe weather you could experience with a typhoon; extremely strong winds with central pressure below 900mb, very heavy rains causing flooding and a powerful storm surge. The category five typhoon brought intense sustained winds in the order of 300km/h, gusting to over 350km/h and a storm surge of over 15 feet. Reports of damage are still coming in as of Friday night as communication to the islands hardest hit has been knocked out. Tacloban, a city of about 215,000 residents looks to be the hardest hit where damage is significant, storm surge swamped first and second floors of buildings and high winds tore apart buildings. It’s difficult to put an estimate on damage and death toll at this point.


Picture of some of the damage to a bus terminal in Ormoc City (located south-west of Tacloban). (Source: R. Deleon)
Picture of some of the damage to a bus terminal in Ormoc City (located south-west of Tacloban). (Source: R. Deleon)

Haiyan continues its trek this weekend as it moves over the South China Sea towards Vietnam. It is expected to make landfall on Saturday overnight as a category two typhoon. Haiyan’s passage over the Philippines weakened its inner core as well as slightly cooler sea surface temperatures and higher shear values have all contributed to Haiyan’s slow weakening. Regardless, the typhoon still needs to be watched closely as it approaches Vietnam as flooding and landslides are expected to be a big problem.

Footage of super typhoon Haiyan making landfall in the Phillipines
An update on Haiyan as well as an update on the cleanup in the Philippines will be posted later this weekend.