Monday, June 01, 2009

Cool week ahead - cold blast late week

The calendar has changed to June, but the cool weather will continue this week with no end in sight to the below normal weather pattern. Today will see sunshine giving way to scattered afternoon showers and thunderstorms as a cold front approaches from the west. This front will bring in cooler air for Tuesday with highs only around 14C. This will lead to a potential for frost early Wednesday morning under clear skies and light winds. Wednesday looks like the nicest day of the week with sunshine and temperatures near 20C. Then things turn ugly for Thursday and Friday. Gusty northwest winds Thursday will usher an unseasonably cold airmass over southern MB with temperatures struggling to remain in double digits. In fact, the airmass will be cold enough to produce snowflurries over higher elevations Thursday night. Frost is a distinct possibility early Friday and Saturday, although cloud and wind may protect us from a widespread killing freeze. Nevertheless, this weather will test the patience of even the heartiest Manitobans who, after enduring 6 consecutive months of below normal temperatures, are wondering if and when the warm weather will ever arrive this year.  

15 comments:

  1. Rob!
    Have you ever had a chance to read the "Weather America NEWS letter"???

    It is issued every Saturday by Larry Cosgrove!

    In his weekly update he does NOT see a huge warm up at all this summer meanwhile The weather network along with Environment Canada is calling for a HOT sunmmer!!!

    The thing I like about Larry Cosgrove is that he gives very detailed descriptions along with graphs and pictures to explain his reasoning!
    He seems to know what he is talking about!

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  2. I've seen his column a few times.. yes, lots of good insight and detailed info on the global circulation.

    FWIW, EC's summer outlook issued today now shows below normal temperatures from the Rockies to the Maritimes. Above normal summer temps indicated only for BC, Yukon and the Arctic.

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  3. Severe Tstrom warning out for Winnipeg due to high wind concerns... convective line about to move thru.

    Interesting to see a secondary lineforming off to the NW... complex surface pressure pattern with multiple troughs and likely lake breeze boundaries

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  4. I was at my parents place out here in Elie Mb with very strong wind guts!

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  5. Did anyone get strong winds at there place???

    Sounds like the west side of the city (westswood, unicity) got very strong winds, yet the airport got 15 km/h winds ACCORDING to their website!

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  6. Nothing as bad as the last cold front moving thru Pembina Hwy at Bishop Grandin BUT TWNs Past radar on their site shows significant high tops crossing SW to NE Hwy 1 just west of Elie at about 315 Link on my name

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  7. Official gust to 69 km/h at Winnipeg airport as the thunderstorms went through.. Doppler showed 50 knots (90 km/h) in low levels as the line was moving over west end of the city. Damage seems to confirm west end got the worst of it ..

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  8. Secondary broken line of towering cummulus moving thru... cells popping up north of Winnipeg (again). Something trying to develop over downtown by the looks of it...

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  9. strong cells building back to the SW and will affect northern half of Winnipeg at least... remains to be seen if line can fill in and affect the south of the city...

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  10. Chris - St.Vital7:45 PM, June 01, 2009

    Quite a bit of dime-sized hail in Windsor Park followed by a complete deluge.

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  11. I followed the tail end (SW end) of the line...

    At least 15 mm hail and absolutely torrential downpours. Street flooding and ponding along Dugald rd and through out St Boniface .. can definitely say that radar is badly underestimating precip intensity along back edge of line... while driving back west, I had glare from full sun reflecting of the sheets of rain and hail... strange

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  12. Quite the thunderstorms events today!

    Rob... I was driving by on the Perimeter HWY where the semi -truck got blown over!!!

    You should see what the wind did to a Highway sign ( perimeter hwy between Roblin and Portage AVE.)

    It twisted that highway sign like a it was made of paper!

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  13. I have a tough weather question that maybe someone will be able to answer!!

    Yesterday's wind storm in Winnipeg....how can the wind gust be so strong as to blow a semi truck over OR blow a tree down but yet not even snap a twig off a tree 1/2 block away!

    When you have a wind gust hit a certain area and you measure it as say....100 km/h will someone measure that wind (in line with were the wind is heading) as exact 100 km/h 400 yards away....
    When does that 100 km/h GUST dissipate????

    Anyone???

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  14. Daniel..

    Outflow winds from a thunderstorm can be very localized on the scale of 100s of metres lasting a few minutes (microburst).. or very widespread over 100s of km lasting for several hours (like a derecho or macroburst). The damage that winds produce depends very much on the objects affected (sturdy or weak, high profile or close to the ground, etc) and the local surroundings (such as trees, buildings, topography, etc) which can influence the wind in very different ways even within the same general area (deflecting, sheltering, funnelling, etc) So it can be a very complicated issue as to exactly what damage a certain wind speed will do.

    In yesterday's case, Doppler was showing a 50 kt wind potential right at Perimeter and Portage when a semi pulling an empty trailer went on the overpass just as the gust hit it broadside. Wrong place at the wrong time. A high profile vehicle getting hit broadside by a sudden strong wind gust is very susceptible to blowing over, especially when its elevated on a bridge to get the full force of the wind. As for tree branch damage, it can make a big difference as to the state of the branch itself (new, old, rotting, exposed, type of tree, etc) as to whether or not the branch breaks off, or simply bends in the wind without damage.

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  15. Thanks for the answer Rob!
    That sure cleared things up quite a bit!

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