Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Storm system continues to affect southeast MB/Red River valley with snow and blowing snow..

The storm system that brought rain, snow and ice to southern MB Tuesday continues to affect the area with snow and blowing snow today along with colder temperatures. The storm center is pushing slowly towards Kenora with snow and gusty winds on the backside of the storm affecting areas mainly over southeast MB and the Red River valley. Snowfall amounts of 5-10 cm are likely in these areas today, with the highest amounts expected east of Winnipeg where 10-15 cm is possible through tonight. Of greater concern are the strong northerly winds accompanying the snow today which are producing poor visibility in blowing snow in open areas and through much of the Red River valley. Highway conditions will be poor today through much of southern MB due to icy roads and poor visibility at times. This system will finally pull off Thursday with a welcome break from precipitation through the upcoming weekend.

27 comments:

  1. Good Job Environment Canada!
    It truly looked like the snow would never make it here but they were persistent with there forecast and looking out the window this morning ....
    it looks it was a good call....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like most of the Anemometers in the RRV and SE MB are frozen up with the FZR from last night. Mine is still working, but I think there is some ice on it. The wind speed is Morris is supposedly 5km/h gusting to 7km/h...

    NWS is calling for 5 to 9" of snow just south of the border. I suspect areas near the International border should get close to 15cm. Winnipeg will probably see 6 to 12cm (grand total from this band), with higher amounts south and east.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Received 10 to 12cm here so far.

    ReplyDelete
  4. received about 5-9 cm here in SE Winnipeg so far also

    ReplyDelete
  5. early reports thru 7 am indicate 3-4 inches Pembina area....6-8 Grand Forks area....I had 8 at 730 am in East Grand Forks...Fargo 3-5...

    FYI had update from RFC going 41 ft crest in Fargo flow measurements along the Red south of Fargo indicate flows are higher than 97.. Abercrombie ND on the Red (gauge site is on the Wild Rice) says the water is higher than the high water mark of 97...

    Also NWS employee along the Goose river east of Mayville indicate water 8 inches higher than 97 along that river which flows into Hillsboro ND and then into the Red

    Complicating matters...reports of 0.80 to 1.10 inches of rain (before change to snow) last evening from East Grand Forks to Red Lake Falls... attm unsure if GF crest range will change...it was updated last eve for 50-53 ft.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dan...this storm has been nothing but a headache all week long!

    So much rain....and now you say 6 inches of snow up and down the valley!
    Looking at the webcam the other day you guys had only a couple inches of snow left! Now this!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for the update Dan.. not looking good. What a challenge it must be for the RFC people this year with all this pcpn and temperature variations!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Quite a bit of snow fell!
    some of the drifts on the sidewalk are a couple feet deep!!!!

    Any amounts so far????

    ReplyDelete
  9. Don't look at the extended models... wow. Very active pattern in store for central and eastern N America the next 10 days.

    Trailing piece of energy rotates thru base of longwave trough left over form Colorado Low. This spins up a dreaded "panhandle hooker" (lol) that may give a swath of heavy snow to places like Green Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.

    Then another disturbance now over the Pacific moves in and re-amplifies the longwave trough over the Rockies... and guess what? Another Colorado low emerges with our area likely being affected by an inverted trough and snow mar 30/31.

    A third impulse is then shown by GFS to carve out the Western Trough yet again. This generates Colorado Low number #3 (4 if you start with our current one) around Apr 3/4. This one actually is the most impressive looking. Upper trough becomes very negatively tilted... to the point that there is sharp SE flow ahead of the upper low. This strongly resembles the legendary April '97 storm.

    Of course it is still far out... but we are in a very 'blocky' pattern and our area could be target repeatedly by moisture laden systems with below normal temps. Unbelievable...

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have done some research on April climate. There seems to be a very strong correlation between a cold April and greater than normal precipitation. That was certainly the case in 97', and I believe in 79' as well.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Snow band between Winnipeg and Gimli appears to be intensifying. Snowflakes are getting bigger.. perhaps a better dendritic growth zone? Model sounding suggest -10 to -15 C from 850 to 600 hPa and good lift thru that layer.

    ReplyDelete
  12. UNOFFICIAL SNOWFALL TOTALS SINCE 1 AM CDT, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25

    WINNIPEG, THE FORKS 14 CM
    WINNIPEG, ST, JAMES 15 CM
    WINNIPEG, KINGSTON ROW 14 CM
    BISSETT 15 CM
    SPRAGUE 16 TO 20 CM
    PINEY 10 CM
    STEINBACH 13 CM
    MORDEN 15 CM
    BEAUSEJOUR 15 CM
    BRANDON 3 CM
    PILOT MOUND 7 TO 10 CM
    SELKIRK 15 CM

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rob Is this still part of the original Colorado Low and last weekends pcpn estimates including this would seem accurate but timing late?

    Is it time for another poll?

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is definitely part of the Colorado Low.

    ReplyDelete
  15. We are up to about 15cm here...second largest snowfall in about 2.5 years. There is a good chance that this storm will surpass 17cm of accumulation here, which would make it the largest snowfall in three years...sad, yet true.

    Overall this winter has been much better than the last few years.

    ReplyDelete
  16. So much for my 5 cm estimate.. went against the models and got burned big time.

    Tough to measure due to the strong winds and heavy drifting.. but I'm estimating about 14 cm here in Charleswood.. ranging from 8 to 20 cm in level areas to 30 cm drifts. A heavy snow to shovel.. had to use my snowblower for the first time this winter, as many people were in the neighbourhood.

    Water equivalent is about 10 mm.. which puts us up to around 30-35 mm in Winnipeg since Sunday. So, yes.. those who picked 30-50 mm in the poll get bragging rights!

    Depressing to see all this white stuff again after starting to see bare ground again just two days ago. (well, bare ground that wasn't hidden under water!) I see more communities starting to declare states of emergency due to overland flooding.. could be even more when everything starts melting again. What a mess..

    ReplyDelete
  17. Not sure why my gauge has only picked up 1.8mm. My only guess is that the snow wasn't accumulating in the gauge, because stuff has been melting in it today.

    ReplyDelete
  18. ROB Interesting NWS Radar Graphic of Storm Totalpcpn from Sunday am to Wed 7pm shows a large triangular area Btw Red Lake, Park Rapids and Crookston with 75 to 100+mm of Pcpn. Similar Results for Devils Lake, Fergus Falls to Fargo and Lisbon, Abercrombie to just west of Fargo. The same graphic due to technical issues or distance shows only a Trace north and south of those areas??

    ReplyDelete
  19. From the best I could measure, it seems like about 20cm has fallen here. Most in snow in 2.5 years.

    That brings my seasonal snow total to 100 to 110cm. In terms of total liquid precipitation, about 55 to 60mm of liquid has fallen. These numbers aren't really above normal, however the amount of rain in November, February, and March was unseasonably high (I am missing data from the early November storm, so you can add a bit more to the total pcpn).

    ReplyDelete
  20. The snow just keeps coming down.
    Another 2 cm looks likely!

    -22 C for a overnight low with a -30 C windchill.....Is this January or March????

    ReplyDelete
  21. What's going on in Fargo? Are they evacuating the city? I read on one paper that they might have too. 41ft, is very high. That is an all-time high actually

    What are our new storm totals at? 20cm in YWG.

    Were homes lost this morning north of the city due to ice jams?

    ReplyDelete
  22. I received about 25cm. It is very hard to tell with the wind whipping things around...the actual amount might be closer to 30cm.

    That equals another 12 to 20mm of pcpn on top of the 10mm I got during the rain part of the event. Grand pcpn total is between 25 and 35mm.

    Guess we are back to square one. I started with about 25cm of snow when the melt started two weeks ago.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Another 6 cm of snow last night here in Chwd.. but this stuff was very light and fluffy with low water content. Storm total 20 cm as of this morning. Saving grace is that temperatures will be below freezing for awhile with no major thaw or rain expected over next few days to suddenly melt all this snow. Models indicating storm track next week should keep most storms south and east of RRV basin.. hopefully that doesn't change.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Since Sunday night, here are my numbers..

    12.6 mm rain
    23.4 cm snow (18.0 mm melted)

    Total.. 30.6 mm water equivalent since Sunday night

    The Forks has had about 34 mm rain and melted snow since Sunday night. Winnipeg airport reported 44 mm total pcpn since Sunday, but the gauge overestimated rainfall by about 10 mm. So in general, looks like about 30-35 mm total water in Winnipeg sine Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Terribly misleading windchill forecast for Winnipeg. Today winds are howling at 40g60 km/h.. but no wind chill is mentioned because it's not -25 or lower. Tomorrow, winds are light with a high temperature the same as today, but windchills of -30 are mentioned. That's because tomorrow's windchill is based on an early morning temperature of -21, with slight winds of 15 km/h creating a wind chill of -30 first thing in the morning. But that will not last all day. Tomorrow will be a lot more pleasant than today thanks to those light winds.. so wind chill will not be a factor tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  26. And I thought it was just the tall buildings this morning. Are we actually getting more snow or is this drifting or wind rearranged ground snow??

    ReplyDelete