After another cold week, it looks like southern MB will be rewarded with a nice weekend, with near normal temperatures, no precipitation, and best of all, little wind! That should allow residents of southern MB to shake off some of the cabin fever that has settled in over the past two or three weeks due to virtually continuous below normal temperatures and high windchills. The weather this weekend should be ideal to enjoy winter time activities including the Festival du Voyageur, skating at the Forks, or simply taking a walk outside without fear of frostbite. And it looks like the break from the cold will continue into early next week before a possible cooldown by mid week.. but let's enjoy these next few days before we worry about that!
Speaking of going for a walk, I'd like to share my modification of my winter boots with everyone. I've worn these boots for the previous 3 winters and have always slipped on ice or compacted snow. I was thinking of buying another pair with a tread that isn't as hard and slippery as a hockey puck at -20 and below. But them I thought about studding my boots. Let me tell you the studs work perfectly. I can't slip or slide at all anymore. The mod is so simple. Hexagonal screws (1/4 inch) screwed into the tread. See it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UUkHcPwSNmM
chris in westwood
Thanks for interpreting that picture Rob.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know something of that nature would develop like that on the back of the thunderstorm, and separate itself from the main cloud.
The temperature today here has bobbed around the -1 to -2 mark at the highest, 2 to 3 degrees above what was forecast. Tomorrow the forecast high is even higher, and I would guess that we have a shot at 0 degrees in Southern Manitoba. Morden reached 1 degree as of 4 p.m., and Dauphin had reached 2 degrees an hour or two earlier.
ReplyDeleteI would say that Winnipeg is unlikely to reach 0, but will probably end up between -2 and -4. Here and in other more Southern parts of Manitoba 0 to -3 is very likely.
Note that Winnipeg only got to -6 today (-7 at my place).. that's what happens when you have light winds over a vast snowpack.. it doesn't warm up as much due to the high albedo of the snow reflecting the sunlight. You will notice now that treed areas will warm up quite a bit more than the snowcovered prairies since they're "darker" (lower albedo)and can absorb more solar radiation to warm up the air. This is why places like Pinawa and Wasagaming can be so much warmer in the early spring than places in the Red River valley that are still snowcovered.
ReplyDeleteDownslope winds will also help warm up places like Dauphin, and the western Red River valley like Morden which can accelerate their loss of snowcover compared to other places in the Red River valley. It's all about losing the snowcover now to get those really mild temperatures. Back in 2000, Winnipeg lost its snowcover by the end of February, which helped us hit a record breaking 17C by March 6th.
Some amazing numbers today...Flin Flon 4, Lynn Lake 0, Thompson 0, The Pas 2, Dauphin 2, Steinbach -2, Morden 1, Grand Rapids 2.
ReplyDeleteMost of these were several degrees warmer than predicted. Just to put things into perspective; last week we saw -37 degree temperatures here, which was about 30 degrees below average. Today it was 4 degrees above average. Imagine if we saw 30 degree above average temperatures...that would be 24 degrees!
It looks like many of the areas that benefit from down sloping, as Rob said will reach above zero again tomorrow. The Northern regions will return to a Northerly flow so zero is unlikely there, but in the Western North temperatures will once again approach zero.
To bad for Winnipeg and other regions that don't get extra heat benefits. Hopefully we can get these above zero temperatures for a couple of days to melt all that snow! With the minimal snowpack we have we could see bare ground within a week of warmer weather.