Blizzard conditions have improved quickly this morning across much of southern MB, however blowing and drifting snow remains a problem in open areas.. with poor highway conditions reported across many MB highways. Highway 75 and the TransCanada remain closed this morning while travel is not advised on many other routes.
Here in Winnipeg, we got about 2 cm of new snow last night.. with the airport reporting blizzard conditions for a couple of hours overnight. Looks like the southern Red River valley received the worst of this system with Emerson reporting gusts to 80 km/h and zero visibility for a few hours early this morning.
Attention now turns to windchill today as those gusty northwest winds will continue all day while temperatures remain in the mid minus 20s.. resulting in extreme windchill values of -40 to -45. Frostbite is possible within 10 minutes of exposure in conditions like these. Bad timing for anyone planning outdoor activities today, including the folks down in Winkler for the CBC hockey tournament. But then I'm sure Grapes will be saying this is good Canadian hockey weather that toughens up our kids!
Another Blizzard warning issued!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is really nasty now
with what looks like very light flurries combined with the very nasty wind!!!!
OUCH!!!!!
I called in to report near zero visibility on highways around Steinbach. About 20 minutes later they re-issued the blizzard warning.
ReplyDeleteEven in the city there is fairly heavy blowing snow, I would say this is probably "the best of the worst" in terms of "blizzards" this winter!
For clarification I called Environment Canada.
ReplyDeleteWe still have the blizzard warning down here. It is absolutely horrible here. There was another snow squall a bit ago, and the visibility was zero. It's not much better now. Glad I don't have to go outside.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I am wrong but aren't there sort of "blowing snow clouds" that drift over. Looking at satellite it looks like there are billows of snow blowing across the South here, and it makes it seem overcast as they drift over.
ReplyDeleteI heard that on days like today pilots may experience a complete white out on the ground, but once they get to a couple hundred feet it is completely sunny. This makes perfect sense as it is called a "ground blizzard"! Highway #1 is closed from about Headingley to Brandon. A large section of highway 2 is also closed. Is interstate 29 closed?
Some of the clouds are clouds of snow more than likely. However, at least down here, there have been some snow showers as well.
ReplyDeleteI heard that I-29 was closed for a while, but the ND road conditions web site
http://www.dot.nd.gov/roadreport/roadreport/roadreport.asp
shows it as being open now, but travel is discouraged.
Let's see if this works better...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dot.nd.gov/roadreport
/roadreport/roadreport.asp
It appears that daytime instability due to the very cold air aloft and a stronger February sun triggered some low level convection that accentuated the blowing snow today. That could be a reason why the blizzard conditions redeveloped later this morning, after improving for awhile earlier this morning. Visibilities are greatly improving this evening as the daytime instability subsides..
ReplyDeleteInteresting day.
That is very interesting, I would not have suspected that daytime instability could occur when it is -25 outside, something worth noting!
ReplyDeleteAny real snowstorms in the future? I see a potential one for around the 19th, but of course that is way to far out to be anywhere near accurate.
Rob, I think you are right about the instabilitiy and why it occurred. I believe it also helped keep wind speeds up a little this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteCurrent wind chill -44C at the Hallock airport. Air temp is -27C.