An Alberta clipper system will be tracking across southern MB overnight into Thursday morning, bringing some snow and gusty winds behind it. The combination of fresh snow and increasing north winds will create reduced visibilities in blowing snow mainly over the Red River valley on Thursday, especially in open areas outside of Winnipeg where near-blizzard conditions may be possible for a few hours Thursday morning. Snow is expected to move into Winnipeg this evening with about 5 cm possible by Thursday morning. As the snow tapers off, winds will pick up from the north behind this system with gusts to 60 or 70 km/h Thursday morning giving blowing and drifting snow along with falling temperatures. As a result, be prepared for poor travelling conditions Thursday morning and allow extra time for the commute into work or school. Conditions should be improving by Thursday afternoon as a ridge of high pressure builds into western MB.
Snow has moved in this evening with gusty southerly winds creating considerable drifting and blowing of snow around Winnipeg. Snow should taper off between 9 and 10 pm with about 3-5 cm of new snow, then generally snow free through midnight. Look for another batch of snow to redevelop overnight as the main storm center moves through, then gusty northerly winds developing by morning which will cause more blowing and drifting snow.. with near blizzard conditions possible over open areas Thursday morning.
ReplyDeleteYeah..we picked up about 5 cm in the warm advection part of the storm. Now the dry slot has moved in...temperatures at Melita have jumped to 2 C as they have tapped a warm Chinook flow being dragged south of the low.
ReplyDeleteIt is doubtful that Winnipeg will tap these balmy temperatures before all the wrap around snow and north winds move in to the city ... but it will be interesting to see how warm the temp will get overnite.
Thu 13th - Strong northerly winds developing behind an Alberta clipper produced widespread blowing snow this morning with whiteout conditions at times in open areas. Here in the city, conditions were not too bad after about 7 cm of snowfall last night, with mainly drifting snow and locally reduced visibilities in blowing snow over open areas. You didn't have to go far however to get to very poor travelling conditions with Highway 75 and the Transcanada closed just outside city limits due to poor visibility. Things should improve gradually this morning, although blowing snow will still be a problem into the afternoon over open areas, especially along the Hwy 75 corridor down to Emerson.
ReplyDeleteLast night when I measured snow at Steinbach there was about 3-4cm on the ground. I can't really measure it now as it is in drifts, but I would estimate close to 5cm fell in total. From my house there is no Blizzard, but Steinbach never usually gets in - city blizzards, like winnipeg, but outside the city or in open areas I am sure there is near zero visibility.
ReplyDeleteTalk about roller coaster temp swings...it got above freezing last nite as close to us as Morden before the arctic gunk crashed back in. Temperatures at least were able to stabilize around -16 instead of falling back thru the minus twenties. Although hard to appreciate because of the brutal wind...the airmass modified more than expected. For that reason I think EC's forecast of - 34 C is too low. There are also clouds in Saskatchewan that appear to be making steady eastward progress..they could make a huge difference in overnite lows...especially just southwest of Winnipeg.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the eta there will be virtually zero cloud cover overnight, so personally I wouldn't be surprised to see some -34 to -36 temperatures in the south central and south east. With the predicted winds -40 to -48 wind chills are possible all across Manitoba south and east of Winnipeg.
ReplyDeleteDaniel..
ReplyDeleteI think that low of -34C for Winnipeg was forecast to take into account a light northwest drainage flow which often makes the airport site several degrees colder than nearby stations. Most other places will probably bottom out in the -30C range... maybe "only" -25C in the downtown core.
Well, well...looks like my "warmer" than -34 C is in danger of busting..good ole YWG plunged another three degrees to -31 C tying it with Wasagaming (elev 700 m) as the cold spot for all Southern Manitoba ...once again.
ReplyDeleteI thought even the airport would stay higher than -34 C with the drainage effect and all. Its good if EC is trying to fine tune its forecasts to take into account local effects...the key with predicting overnite lows at the airport ... you can never go low enough ^.~
I wouldn't go just with projected cloud cover from a model...its important to verify what is happening real time to see how the model is initializing...the satellite images do show a cloud deck over southwestern Manitoba making very slow progress to the east.
Anyhow, cold is cold..not looking forward to going out tomorrow morning...stay warm every one!
Am I the only guy that get's pop-up ads on this site? A bit annoying to say the least since I enjoy the site otherwise.
ReplyDeleteNo I get them too.. and yes, they are annoying. Pop up blockers don't even block them. I apologize for them, but they must pop up from some of the free websites I use for things like webcounters, weatherbonk maps, drop down menus, etc. One of these days, I'll clean up the website to get rid of those things..
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