Friday, December 04, 2009

Arctic blast pushing into Prairies

Arctic air has finally moved into the Prairies, and an even colder surge of Arctic air will be pushing into the Prairies today through the weekend thanks to a strong area of high pressure building down from the Yukon. This second blast of Arctic air is currently pushing into Alberta with strong northerly winds, and snow and blowing snow giving near blizzard conditions through central and southern AB. This area of snow will push into the northern US, but the accompanying cold air will push across the eastern prairies over the weekend into early next week, bringing well below normal temperatures across southern MB. Look for highs in the minus teens by early next week with lows in the minus 25 to minus 30 range.

16 comments:

  1. Arctic air has pushed all the way down to southern Texas.. snowing in Houston today!

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  2. I wondering if someone could clarify something????

    On SHAW channel 48 they show some weather records.
    They state that the snowiest December is when 101.3 mm of precipitation fell! In brackets it says 101.3 cm of snow!

    Does that sound right that it would be the same amount of melted precipitation ( in Millimeters) as the amount of measured snow!!! (in Centimeters)

    I'm confused!!!!

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  3. Daniel..

    Prior to 1960, snowfall measurements were simply converted 10:1 for water equivalent. So snowfall (in cm) was always 10X the water equivalent (or the same value in cm as mm) I belive they started measuring actual water equivalent of snowfall back around 1960 or so. That continued until 2003 when they stopped taking snowfall measurements at the airport, and reported water equivalent values of the snow only.

    So we went from snowfall amounts but no water equivalent readings from 1872 to 1960, to snowfall + water equivalent values from 1960-2003, to water equivalent but no snowfall amounts from 2003-present.

    Not sure if that clears it up for you, or just makes the issue more confusing!

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  4. Thanks for the explanation Rob!
    Everything is clear now!

    About this arctic outbreak!!!

    We had October in November!
    Now we are going to get January in December!!!

    Calgary area is getting slammed with very strong winds and whiteout conditions today!

    Winter has finally made an appearance after all!

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  5. Temperatures already at -20 C with a windchill of -30 C in Brandon!!

    Look like Environment Canada might have to drop their overnight lows in western Manitoba where skies have cleared!

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  6. Ouch... already -28 to -30C over far SW MB at Virden and Souris.

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  7. Flash freeze of the Red River last night. 300 ft wide and running bank to bank, to completely frozen in 24 hours at St Vital Park.

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  8. A high of -20 C for Winnipeg on Wednesday!!!

    Now that's what I call January like weather!

    Looks like we are paying for that warm November!!!!

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  9. Has anyone noticed a trend???

    Cold August!!
    Warmest September on record!
    Cold start to October!!
    Very warm November!
    Very cold start to December!

    It's like as soon as the calender flips the weather is right on cue!!

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  10. Quite the monster high pressure over the Yukon.. 1060 mb! Temperatures however not as cold as you would expect under such a massive high.. "only" in the mid minus 20s. If this was January or February, you'd be looking at -40 to -50C temperatures up there!

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  11. When I look at the upcoming cold snap I go "WOW"

    Then after looking at the record overnight lows for Winnipeg for this time of year I realize it can get a lot colder than this!!!

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  12. Freezing drizzle warning issued for Winnipeg area!!

    Temperatures are well below freezing so I assume roads will be very slick later!!!

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  13. Look on the bright side. All that cold will let a lot of sunshine in.

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  14. Pollen, grass, leaf, stubble smoke and other airborne pollutants will be minimal as well. lol

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  15. I can't believe how cold of an airmass that is coming down this week!!!

    -23 C for a high on Wednesday????

    That would be 14 C colder than normal!!!

    Well I was wishing for all of this cold a month ago and now I got it!!

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  16. Given the lack of snow cover I believe the long range guidance is underestimating those high temperatures. As Rob mentioned, the source region for our airmass is not all that cold (all things considered) and the sparse snow cover will allow for moderation than normally would be the case.

    With an ongoing moderate El Nino and limited snow pack I would not be surprised if we return to a near or above normal pattern faster than the models would suggest.

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