Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Milder weather ahead..

Gusty south winds today will herald the arrival of milder weather moving into southern MB over the next few days. Today however will be another cold day in the Red River valley thanks to those southerly winds gusting up to 70 km/h which will negate any increase in temperatures today, giving windchills around the -30 mark this afternoon. The gusty winds will also give blowing and drifting snow in open areas.. especially across east-west highways. Winds will drop off tonight giving much more pleasant conditions over the Red River valley Thursday with temperatures rising to -3C along with partly sunny skies. The mild weather is expected to continue into Friday before a slight cooldown for Saturday. Milder weather will return for Sunday and Monday before a possible snowstorm moves in for next Tuesday.

8 comments:

  1. Here is a quick look at what the GFS is saying:

    Manitoba
    Winnipeg: 18.0mm - Mainly Snow, Risk FZR
    Steinbach: 29.4mm - Mainly Snow, with RN and FZR mixed in.
    Brandon: 16.9mm - Snow

    North Dakota
    Grand Forks: 33.9mm - Mix of RN, FZR, and Snow.
    Fargo: 37.4mm - Mainly RN and FZR, with some Snow.
    Bismarck: 23.4mm - Mainly Snow, with risk of FZR.

    This is obviously a worst case scenario for Red River Valley flood chances. This is an eerily similar situation to early April 1997. However on the lighter side this is still a forecast, and certainly one that I'll be watching very closely.

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  2. Yep we are keeping an eye on it down here in Grand Forks. Has been dry for last month... Just had a Devils Lake briefing..it should hit a record level this summer 1450 feet if not higher.

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  3. The GFS is finally starting to show a storm system also.
    Just earlier the GFS showed a very weak system stateside!

    Now it shows a wind swept snowstorm for all.

    I will wait a couple more days before I jump on the "snowstorm bandwagon"

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  4. Lots of blowing and drifting snow this afternoon with reduced visibilities on highways around Winnipeg and to the north.. careful driving if you're out on the highways this afternoon/evening.

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  5. 74 km/h wind gusts and 1 km visibility for Winnipeg as of 5:00 p.m!

    Worse than I thought it would be!

    1 km visibility and it is not even snowing out there!

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  6. I have been reading the grand forks weather discussion that is issued by the National weather office on a daily basis!!!

    They have been using a weather term that I have know idea what it means!!

    PWATS

    What does that mean???
    Ex. "....with PWATS over 6 tenths of a inch"

    Anyone????

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  7. PWAT = precipitable water

    A measure of how much moisture is present in the atmospheric column. A PWAT value of .6" means there is enough moisture in the column to support an average of approx 15 mm of precip.

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  8. OK...Now I know
    thanks for the information!

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