A blizzard warning has been issued for the Red River Valley including Winnipeg due to the expected development of highs winds and poor visibilities in blowing snow overnight into Saturday. An Arctic cold front marking the leading edge of much colder air pushing into AB and western SK this afternoon will push eastward into southern MB tonight. The front is expected to move into southwest MB this evening, reaching Winnipeg around 3 am or so. The front will be accompanied by a band of snow, lasting 3 or 4 hours, giving possible snowfall accumulations of 2 to 5 cm tonight. Although there will not be a lot of new snow with this system, strong northwest winds of 50 to 70 km/h developing behind the front will create widespread poor visibilities in blowing snow. Blizzard conditions will result for several hours tonight into Saturday morning with visibilities of 400 meters or less especially in open areas. The extent and duration of blizzard conditions will depend on how much new snow falls tonight, but at this point enough loose snow is expected to warrant a blizzard warning. Conditions should gradually improve Saturday as the snow tapers off, however strong northwest winds gusting to 70 km/h will persist through the day giving extreme windchill values of minus 40 to minus 45 through the day. In addition, blowing and drifting snow will still be a problem is open areas outside the city. As a result, expect poor traveling conditions throughout the Red River valley on Saturday with possible road closures. Note that a similar situation to this system on the night of January 28th-29th resulted in several highway closures over southern MB including the TransCanada and Highway 75. Only a trace to 1 cm of new snow fell with that system.
To emphasize, this will not be a paralyzing blizzard with lots of deep snow. Rather it will be a storm bringing high winds, sharply colder temperatures and enough new snow that will give blizzard conditions for several hours tonight into Saturday morning, especially in open areas outside the city.
Well at least we have something to talk about. These "blizzards" that we have received this winter have hardly been real. Although this situation looks to be a bit more promising with the NWS in Bismarck already issuing blizzard warnings for central North Dakota. NWS Grand Forks still has a blizzard watch in effect, which by the looks of things, will probably be upgraded to a blizzard warnings later this evening.
ReplyDeleteYes, this will definitely be a wind and cold event as opposed to a heavy snow event. The snow that falls will blow like mad, but the biggest story will be the wind and the wind chills tomorrow and tomorrow night. I would not be surprised to see some 80 km/h gusts in open areas, particularly south of Winnipeg and in northeast ND and northwest MN. Local gusts to 85 km/h are even possible down here. Wind chills to -45C are definitely not out of the question, and some open areas could see wind chills closer to -50with the higher gusts. Tomorrow and tomorrow night will be good times to stay indoors. Driving in the country would not be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteBruce
Blizzard conditions in southern SK behind this Arctic cold front with widespread near zero visibilities from Regina to Swift Current this evening, even though snowfall has been minimal. We can expect similar conditions in the valley by morning, especially in the country.
ReplyDeleteWind shift to from S to NW at 2:30 PM here in Regina. After a high of -3 C at my station at 2:30 PM, temp dropped 8 degrees in an hour. Snow and wind really began reducing visibility around 5 PM. On my way home from work at 5:30 PM I had to turn off a street on the NW outer edge of the city as I could only see 1 car length ahead. Visibility about 1 city block currently (7:15 PM CST)with winds gusting to 55k at my house with a temp of -19. http://nwrweather.com/
ReplyDeleteLooks like Emerson will have the honor of best blizzard this time. Three straight hours of 0km visibility. As of 8 a.m. in Steinbach according to Manitoba Ag, the wind is only NW 30 G 50. Usually it is stronger than this, our weather station never seems to record winds as high as other regions of central Manitoba. About 2-3cm of snow fell here, although it is hard to tell because it has drifted. I can't see the highway from my house, but I would expect in Northern Steinbach there would be much more blowing snow, as it is quite wide open.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure exactly sure how much snow we got in Lancaster, but it had to be at least 4 cm. In fact, it was snowing for a while around noon. For a time, I could barely see across the street from my house. I can only imagine what it's like out in open areas. Hourly reports from Hallock showed winds to 74 km/h, but there could have been higher gusts between observations.
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