Friday, January 01, 2010

2010 off to a chilly start

2010 is off to a frosty start across southern MB this morning with temperatures in the minus 30s across the region. Winnipeg airport dropped to -34C this morning, the first -30C reading of the season. With westerly winds of 15 km/h, this is producing wind chills of -45 across the Red River valley this morning. Temperatures will climb only to -23C this afternoon, about 10C below normal before another cold night tonight with overnight lows in the minus 30s again.. with -40C possible over extreme SE Manitoba in the Sprague region. Temperatures will moderate a bit for Sunday into Monday but are forecast to remain below normal through next week.

32 comments:

  1. Rob!

    Area's around Swift Current and east to Regina could get a blizzard tonight with BRUTAL windchill temperatures!

    This is the kind of Blizzard one would not want to fool around with!

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  2. With the ridge of high pressure moving in over us I would expect some bone-chilling conditions tonight, even worse then last night. Like EC stated in their weather warning for the Red River Valley with the ridge moving in the winds will increase just a bit but giving off very high windchill values.
    Its that time of the year!

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  3. Can anyone speculate why Environement Canada would issue both a windchill warning and a special weather statement!

    Last time they issued a windchill warning, the special statement covered the SAME area that the warning covered!

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  4. The SWS is for the Manitoba Lakes. I think they issued it because they can't issue a warning for the lakes. There is really no proper forum for a wind chill warning over the Manitoba lakes, since the Marine page is for water activities. Obviously, the lakes are frozen, thus a SWS of this nature would likely affect ice fisherman and maybe some individuals who use ice roads.

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  5. Looks like Environement Canada will have to keep going lower and lower on the overnight lows with thier updates!

    Dauphin is already -33!

    Unreal!

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  6. Scott's correct. That particular SWS bulletin is issued specifically for the MB lakes for windchill warnings.

    Down to -30.0C at my site as of 9 pm.. first -30C of the season. It'll probably dip to -33 or -34C by morning here.

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  7. -29.9 in my backyard last night according to my cheap weather station. -29.8 right now. I haven't had -30 yet this season either.

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  8. -30.4 now for the last couple of hours.

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  9. My Davis station hit -30.9C at sometime between 2 and 3am last night. My AES min thermometer recorded a low of -31C. Frosty, but not Earth shattering as far as Winnipeg winter temps go.

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  10. Record lows at GFK (-35F) and FAR (-33F) this morning. MB cold spot was Sprague at -38.6C -32.0C at my place this morning, coldest reading since Jan 16th of last year (-32.8C)

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  11. I'm getting sick of winter already!

    I know I was wishing for cold and snow but.......

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  12. Daniel I'm blaming you. You wished for the cold to much. LOL

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  13. Are we going to get snow in Winnipeg tonight? I see some snow in western Manitoba coming, but no one is expecting any snow. I suppose it will dissipate?

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  14. Jewels

    It looks to me like that snow might make it to Winnipeg. It's just by Brandon now and sure looks like it is on a collision course with Winnipeg. Some parts of it look like pretty heavy snow. Maybe the air is dry enough between us and them that it will dissapatate.

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  15. Typing to fast pls ignore the spelling/typos.

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  16. That snow is associated with some warm advection ahead of a weak system over southern SK. The system however slides southeastward tonight so the bulk of the snow should remain over southwest MB, where 2 to 5 cm is possible. Winnipeg will see an increase in cloud cover tonight, but any snow should remain to our southwest.

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  17. Although the radar is showing snow in western Manitoba current observation such as Brandon indicate only cloudy skies!!!

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  18. Correction on Sprague's low yesterday morning.. they did hit the -40C mark with a low of -40.3C.

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  19. The models always show some big warm up in the extended range since early December!!!

    To bad that warm up never makes it!!!

    Maybe sometime in March.....

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  20. Do you know where in Winnipeg it was "-40 again". I believe I heard it on a CTV weather summary broadcast overnight.

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  21. I don't think it was actully -40c in Winnipeg over the last several days. Windchills were in the -40's though

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  22. That's right.. temperatures never reached -40C in Winnipeg, but windchill values were in the -40 to -45 range. Sprague was the only spot that officially hit -40C, Saturday morning. I've noticed some Winnipeg media don't even give the actual temperature but just give the wind chill. It gives the misleading impression that it's the actual air temperature. See my "Windchill is not a temperature" blog entry in December for my thoughts on this issue.

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  23. It is more than misleading when media outlets use windchill values and identify them as actual temperatures, particularly when it is repeated by National and International media.

    The Convention Center will not have an easier time marketing Winnipeg as a destination if the National Media continue to exaggerate winter weather.

    Recruiting new staff to Winnipeg, is not enhanced when potential employees elsewhere hear that we have had another -40s weather day.

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  24. Rob!

    You will have to do a huge blog entry when the humidex season approaches this summer :>)

    That's if we actually get a summer this year......

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  25. Looks like we have to settle in for another cold blast and after that it might just warm up back to normal or above normal!!!!

    Here's hoping!!!

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  26. Looks like we might return to above-normal temperatures by Sunday or Monday.

    And daniel...I'm blaming you for all this cold. You were wishing for it and now you are taking it back...I hope you've learned your lesson!

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  27. I always like to see how extreme the weather can be!!!
    That's why living in this part of the county is good if your a weather nut!

    We get the best of both worlds ....
    extremes of hot and cold and extreme in the storms!!!!

    But your right too much of one thing like weeks and weeks of cold do get old after awhile!!!

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  28. Rob

    I see a new poll possibility.


    Who blames daniel P for the cold? LOL

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  29. Interesting this morning. At 9:30am the radar shows that the snow has all passed us but those large snowflakes are still falling. Is the snow originating from low level clouds and the radar not able to pick them up or is their some other reason. I know the snow is light but with the size of the flakes I would think radar would pick those up.

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  30. Low angle Doppler picks up the snow in the lowest levels.. which is harder for the radar to pick up higher up. So yes, the snow is light and originating in the very lowest levels. Also showed that the heaviest activity was over downtown and eastern Winnipeg before it tapered off.

    Should add a nice wintery touch to the festivities this evening as the torch comes to Winnipeg. Just about ideal conditions for this time of year with light winds, temperatures around -12C, and a few flurries in the air. Thankfully, we won't have to endure national media going on and on about residents "braving those brutal -40C windchill conditions in Winterpeg"

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  31. Our local office climate guru and myself were talking about long term trends into early spring. The Arctic Oscillation (AO) was just over -5.0 for the third day in a row...the only other year that has seen AO more than -5 for three days in a row was in 1977.

    It does look like a trend more toward normal or even above normal will commence late this weekend into next week but how long it lasts is very ?? The AO is predicted to rise a bit but remain negative. On some of the weather forums I frequent (eastern us wx forum for one) speculate that the AO will again become dominate and the pattern will revert back to cold after a week or two of warmer wx.

    But as our local climate guy said we are dealing with a very very unique situation with a strong negative AO and a strong western based El-Nino. He did say that looking back at some years that fit the current temp-wise does show a higher likelihood of a colder than normal spring. But that is more speculation at this point. Based on this idea...his reasearch speculates that the melt would begin around april 5-10th in the nrn RRV of ND/MN.

    I did see the latest very long range probablistic outlook for the red river basin issued by the RFC in Chanhanssen and it gives kind of the middle range of probs near 50-52 ft for a crest at Pembina. But I think these do incorporate climo and we all know everything depends on melt and weather at time of melt. Snowpack in ern ND runs mostly 12-22 inches SW mostly 2-3 inches....but of course all depends on where you measure. I took our 4 yr old out in our backyward this weekend to dig out our gas meter as it was under 5 ft drifts and the snow (not drifts) were almost to my knees and over my kids knees and he gave up walking much as he could not.

    Take care!

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  32. Thanks for the update Dan..

    I see the average AO index in December was -3.4, the lowest value since records started in 1950. Previous lowest was December 2000 when it was -2.4. That December was one of our coldest on record, almost 8C below normal during a weak La Nina. This December was near normal.. so it appears El Nino saved us from having an exceptionally cold December this year. If AO stays negative the rest of the winter, it appears we'll have varying episodes of above and below normal spells as El Nino and AO battle each other for atmospheric control. Overall, the winter may average near normal, but it will be anything but during any particular time..

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