Thursday, December 04, 2008

You think it's cold now.. wait til next week!

Get the cold weather gear and block heater ready.. the coldest weather of the season so far is poised to spread over the Prairies next week with temperatures likely in the minus 20s and minus 30s. We'll get a sneak preview of this cold airmass over the weekend as an Arctic high drops in from the north, giving us highs only in the minus 15 range and lows near minus 25 Saturday night. On Sunday into Sunday night, an Alberta clipper is forecast to spread cloud and snow across southern MB with 2-5 cm possible. In behind this clipper will be a major push of Arctic air as a massive Yukon ridge drives very cold air across the Prairies. This cold air will spread into southern MB on Monday with gusty northerly winds, and temperatures around minus 20, giving windchills of minus 30 to minus 35. Very cold conditions are expected the rest of the week as the Arctic airmass builds in..possibly modified briefly midweek as a weak clipper system scoots by. Look for daily highs next week in the minus 18 to minus 23 range, and lows in the minus 28 to minus 33 range.

28 comments:

  1. I cannot believe how cold it is going to get.
    Imagine if we had a DEEP snow-pack.
    The temperatures would bottom even more!!!
    AccuWeather is calling this "the worst cold December blast in many years" !

    ReplyDelete
  2. What happened to the 10-15cm of snow for next week. I guess the models broke down or is it still up in the air?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Currently I see absolutely nil in terms of snowfall. The models have been completely irrational for the past while. The show 30cm of snow one day, and nothing the next. I wouldn't be surprised if some parts of Southern Manitoba saw a "brown Christmas" this year. With all that arctic air coming South I can't imagine much snow in the near future.

    I still see the potential for extreme cold. I don't believe it...The models agree on bad weather, but can't agree on the weather we want, go figure.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Large area of snow approaching Winnipeg from the west this morning.. visibilities down to 1 mile in snow in Brandon and Dauphin. Could see 1 or 2 cm out of this by midday which will likely slick up the roads.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Scott....fear not of a brown Christmas!
    Looks like there is some snow heading your way...about a inch of accumulation today!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is about 5cm of snow on the ground here, but you can still see grass poking out everywhere as well.

    We have barely had a snowflake so far this morning, but looks like it is about to change...

    Visibility down to 0.8km in Brandon. I think we could get a good 2 to 4cm out of this, assuming the whole precipitation shield continues farther East. It is hard to tell how much snow is really coming out of this thing. I think ratios will be 1:10 to 1:15, and with the dry atmosphere it seems to take awhile before snow starts falling. 5cm would not be out of the question, although that is making a lot of assumptions on the state of this event. I would take Rob's advice, because he has all the latest information on the snow rates, and amounts.

    ReplyDelete
  7. As of noon, Portage has picked up 1 cm, and Brandon has had 3 cm.

    Pretty pathetic.. we have to get excited about 1-3 cm snowfalls!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is nothing official but looking outside downtown I would guess maybe just over a cm at 2:30

    ReplyDelete
  9. We received 3-4cm here in Steinbach.

    It is sad that 2cm of snow is enough to get us excited. In Steinbach any snow is exciting, because we didn't get any during the Nov 6-7th event.

    It is extremely fine snow. I will have the liquid equivalent for you in a hour or two (it will probably be around 0.5mm).

    ReplyDelete
  10. About 0.3mm is the liquid equivalent here. I don't believe that is accurate, because my rain gauge doesn't have an increased cone size for snowfall collection. Even if it did, the liquid amount would still be relatively insignificant. That is a testament to how dry the snow was today.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The arctic surge is a little delayed tonight with temperatures still at -10 C as of 9:00 p.m

    When those winds hit 40 -60 km/h I guess that's when the wall of cold hits.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The WRF only shows the onslaught of arctic air after midnight. It remains to be seen how cold it will get. As you note it isn't all that cold yet (relatively speaking).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Looks like models are backing off on the really cold stuff for next week.. hopefully it stays that way. We get a cold push Monday-Tuesday with highs in the minus teens, lows in the minus 20s, then moderate somewhat with a clipper system mid week giving us some snow. After that, we're back into the cold, but models hint it won't be as deep as earlier thought. That's fine with me!

    ReplyDelete
  14. How much snow are we expecting for Sunday?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Maybe a 2 cm of snow with the next clipper system for Sunday!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. That is dissapointing. Hoping for a little more than that.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I have a question !!!!
    Maybe someone will be able to answer it!
    How can Key Lake S.k get so COLD
    They were the Canadian cold spot last night at -39.5 C
    What makes them be able to get that cold??? (colder than Eureka and Alert)~

    ReplyDelete
  18. I was told that it was due to the sandy soil in the region. The sandy ground loses heat much faster than other soil types, and therefore it gets colder. I would point you to this article written by EC's Dave Carlsen:

    http://www.canadianweather.org/forums/showthread.php?t=332

    ReplyDelete
  19. Well it looks like this cold blast is here to stay!
    All week it is gonna be a ice block outside!
    Looks like December might be our first Below normal month for a change!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Radar returns are looking pretty impressive this morning!
    2cm of snow looks likely even though Environment Canada is calling for none!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I am calling for 3 to 5cm in Steinbach, with similar amounts in Winnipeg, Portage, and other RRV cities. 2cm looks likely for almost every Southern MB region that is even somewhat within the precip shield. Pretty sad if you think about it...This is the "heaviest" snow we have seen in a month!

    I knew eventually these little snowfalls would catch up to us. We will have at least 10cm on the ground here by the end of the day, possibly closer to 12cm (just as guess). All of that snow from these measly 2-4cm snowfalls, go figure. I think this almost certainly rules out the possibility of a "brown or green" Christmas this year for anyone in Southern MB.

    ReplyDelete
  22. EC changed to 2-4 cm just now

    ReplyDelete
  23. P.S. The current liquid equivalent at my place is 0.2mm, that is with 1.5cm of snow (at the most). This is a lower snow ratio than the clipper last week.

    ReplyDelete
  24. EC still only has 2cm for Steinbach. They might change that soon as well.

    ReplyDelete
  25. How do you find out the actual snowfall that has happened in a specific period of time?

    If I wantred to know how much snow has fallen since 8:00 a.m. to now or from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. how would I find out?

    And I would like to know the amount in centimeters..

    Thanks in advance..

    ReplyDelete
  26. Nice little snowfall today with a good 5 cm of new snow in Charleswood as of 2:30 pm.. nice light fluffy snow with low water content. According to Whyte Ridge station, water equivalent was 1.2 mm, which would give this snowfall a 40:1 ratio.

    Anon.. best way to find out how much snow fell.. a ruler! Seriously, actual snowfall measurements are taken with a ruler, usually an average of 3 or 4 different measurements at your site unaffected by drifting or wind driven snow. Increasingly, EC relies on volunteer observers to give them actual snowfall depths since most of EC's network of weather reporting stations are becoming automated, and only measure liquid content of melted snow. In Winnipeg, for example, official snowdepth observations for the airport ended in 2003.. EC has had to rely on nearby volunteer climate observers for actual snow depths since then.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Darn!! Any webcams on that ruler???

    ReplyDelete
  28. Ended up with 6cm in Steinbach. We have set a new daily snow record for this winter.

    0.8mm liquid equivalent here.

    ReplyDelete