Saturday, March 13, 2010

Mild weather continues this week.. colder air looms for next weekend..

The mild springlike weather will continue this week over southern Manitoba with melting temperatures of +7c or higher through Friday, some 5-10C above the normal high of -1C this time of year. In fact, double digit temperatures are possible in areas that see sun this weekend into mid week over parts of the Interlake, northern RRV and southeast Manitoba where snowcover is becoming sparse. Long range models however are indicating a pattern change to colder weather next weekend, the official start of spring, with temperatures dropping to near or below normal values.

15 comments:

  1. Rob

    How is the long range looking for snow with those colder temps next weekend? Any big storms lurking out there?

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  2. Temperature is already +6C in Steinbach, and it is only 10am. We could hit double digits today if the sun stays out.

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  3. Temperature is +10C in Steinbach.

    Satellite imagery shows there being little to no snow left on the fields in the area. I'm expecting a high of +11 or +12C today.

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  4. The official start of spring is March 1. March 20 is the start of astronomical spring, which is an obsolete definition.

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  5. Gorgeous day out there.. feels like April! Sunshine and lack of snow cover has allowed temperatures to climb to the 10C mark in Winnipeg.. a couple degrees shy of today's record high of 12.2C set in 1902. (We would have set a record high if we had this weather yesterday - record high for the 12th is only 7.2C) Warmest readings today over the northern RRV and SE Manitoba where temps of 10-13C are noted. Cloud and snow cover are keeping temperatures below 5C over the southern RRV and western MB.

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  6. My home weather station in Southeast Winnipeg showed a max temp of 14.6 degrees this afternoon. Gorgeous Day!

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  7. Temperature made it all the way up to +14C in Steinbach, the sun and bare ground made a huge difference!

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  8. MLBYWS, in Central South-West River Heights, recorded a high of 11.7 °C today, just like Rob did.

    It was a wonderful temperature event today.

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  9. Did anyone place break a record today????

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  10. Daniel...8 communities broke records today...click my name.

    ...and a question for Rob...when does EC consider the snowpack to be gone (i.e. the date when a given city has lost its snow cover)? Is it when there is no snow left whatsoever, or is it when the fields around a community are snow free? Or is it when the average snow depth (prior to the melt beginning) is gone?

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  11. Wow!

    The skies were clear a minute ago here in the city.....now the fog is VERY THICK!!!

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  12. Scott..

    Generally, snowcover is considered gone when the measured snowdepth at a location is zero. However, that snowdepth can vary greatly in a location depending on where the measurement is taken. Is it an open location like an airport? A forested area? A residential location? Generally, snowdepth will be less at more exposed locations due to wind.

    Since snowdepth can vary so much depending on the observing site, year to year comparisons are only accurate when taken from the same site. Snowdepth at the airport, for example, will be quite different than at my residential site in Charleswood (airport is almost always lower than mine do to its more windswept exposed location) Looking at surrounding fields and satellite photos, it is clear that general snowcover is basically gone in the Winnipeg area, although I'm officially calling about 5 cm snowdepth in my sheltered backyard.

    For my observing practices, I will generally call the snowdepth zero when the most of the snow is gone from the open grass. Snowbanks don't count since they are artificially inflated amounts.

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  13. Thanks for the info Rob.

    Based on that, I would say Steinbach is in much the same situation as Winnipeg. At my place there is still some snowcover (probably quite similar to Rob's). However, outside the city there is virtually no snow cover. If we are using the airport as a reference, we could say that Steinbach is snow free as of March 13. It may have been snowfree sooner than that, but to be safe, I will say today is the special day.

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  14. Daryl..

    At this point, model consensus keeps any significant storms to our south and southeast this upcoming weekend into next week.. GFS is most northerly on a storm system on the weekend taking it through Iowa and Wisconsin, but even that model keeps the heaviest snow to our south and east. We'll have to see how models trend with that system, but so far it looks like it the worst of it should miss us. Even so, there will likely still be some snow for us with weak systems passing through in the colder air. Unfortunately, it looks like this cooldown will last into the end of March which increases our chances of seeing some snowfall during that time.

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  15. I made it to 10.1C on Saturday, here in Silver Heights. The sun was strong enough to push the temperature in my unheated sunroom up over 21C. A wee taste of summer.

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