Monday, March 12, 2007

Amazing warmth over Northern Plains, southern SK



Some amazing warmth over the Northern Plains and southern SK today with strong southwest winds and a lack of snow allowing record breaking temperatures in the twenties across much of the area. By mid afternoon, temperatures had cracked the 20C mark in southern SK along the US border with Coronach and Val Marie at 21c. Further south, temperatures in western ND were 22c in Bismarck, while Rapid City was an amazing 28C by 3 pm, smashing the old record for the day by a whopping 7C. Not only was this a record for the day, but it tied the all-time high for the entire month of March, set on March 26, 1993. Quite amazing considering this year's 28C reading was a full two weeks before the old mark.
Here in Southern MB, temperatures were not quite as mild due to an extensive snowpack, however an increasing southwest flow allowed temperatures to climb into the double digits from Dauphin (10c) and McCreary (14c) to Portage (11c) , while Winnipeg was struggling to reach 4C by late day.

7 comments:

  1. The balmly southwesterly flow reached Winnipeg last evening...the high of 6.9 C was reached at around 9 pm. So close to the record!

    If the warmest air would have moved over us a few hours earlier while the sun was out, Winnipeg could easily have reached double digits...ohwell, maybe next time.

    Dan

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  2. It's getting closer! Nice to see that snowpack shrinking to our west and south. Hopefully we don't get any more big snows to set us back!

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  3. Environment Canada now has lowered Wednesday's forecast high to -7 C for Winnipeg ... seems strange considering the airmass tomorrow will only be slightly cooler than today.

    Temperatures upstream of us in central manitoba are in the -1 to -4 range...Tomorrow's forecast highs for Brandon to Emerson are 0 C ... unless a sharp 'back door' type front moves down, Winnipeg will not be 7 degrees colder.

    Dan

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  4. Yes.. I found that kind of odd, too.. especially considering that the forecast is "Sunny", and upstream temperatures were near freezing.

    There is a sharp cold front through central SK/MB that will move south tomorrow and weaken. If we get behind that front and get a northerly flow, then perhaps we'll get those colder temperatures. Otherwise, we'll probably be close to freezing again.

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  5. Looks like that cold front is coming through after all. Selkirk has dropped to -9 as of 6:30 am and Gimli's down to -14 with gusty north winds. Look for temperatures in Winnipeg to drop quickly this morning with northerly winds picking up, then recover somewhat this afternoon under that March sunshine. But it will be noticably colder than yesterday.. that -7 is probably going to work out after all.

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  6. Yikes...Gimli is still dropping...now down to -19 C! What a cold airmass considering the March sun and our dwindling snowpack which from the satellite image looks rather dingy.

    Dan

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  7. March 20 update..

    Another warm one over western Dakotas today with highs in the upper 70s and low 80s again. Rapid City hit 83F today, its warmest March temperature ever.

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