Tuesday, August 23, 2011

City sizzles through hottest day in 16 years..

It was a torrid Tuesday over southern Manitoba as a southwest flow of hot dry air sent temperatures into the mid to upper thirties over the Red River valley. In Winnipeg, the mercury soared to a record breaking 37.2C by 2:30 pm, beating the previous high for Aug 23rd of 36.7C set in 1952. Not only was this the hottest day of the summer, it was also Winnipeg's hottest temperature since June 17 1995 when the city hit 37.8C. The record heat today was accompanied by very dry conditions (see YWG 22Z sounding), with dewpoints dropping to the 10C mark by mid afternoon giving humidity values of only 20%. At my Rob's Obs station in Charleswood, a maximum temperature of 38.0C was reached at 2:49 pm today, the hottest temperature at my site since it was started in 2001. (see my station's temperature trace above)

Luckily the record heat will be short lived. A cold front was pushing through southern Manitoba Tuesday evening dropping temperatures into the 20s accompanied by gusty northwest winds. This front will usher in a cooler airmass for Wednesday with temperatures some 10 degrees cooler than today.

15 comments:

  1. Did you say the hottest of this millennium.

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  2. 38 C at your place Rob!
    Amazing...but you were prediciting these temperatures. Good forecasting job.

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  3. It would be great if we had actual soundings from CYWG (I used to release Loran radiosondes, lots of fun), but the modeled one is still impressive. (NOAA doesn't know how to spell - 'Winnepeg').

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  4. quick note: Southern Ontario is now under a tornado watch. Looks like its there turn for severe weather today. I wonder when our chance will be? click my name to visit the weather warnings page of EC for details.

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  5. Speaking of which that record we broke yesterday was almost as old as me, by a month so i'm surprised bigtime. It was about 99F yesterday, or close to 100F. Feeling closer to las vegas, nevada. Well I guess we don't need to make a trip down there to experience there hot weather.

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  6. In the 50s Mike, the Free Press n Tribune would publish Front page pics of Eggs Frying on the asphalt (Mountain Ave I recall). Impressive but it had to be 100F for aficianados (Spanish) for Hot Weather Nuts)

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  7. remind me next time when we get close to hitting 100F, and then I'll go and try to fry eggs on the sidewalk. See if it works.

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  8. Those old enough to remember, spent the day the same way as the mid 30C day in June this year golfing.MSGA (Mb Snr Golf Ass) events in the cool noon to 6pm slot. At Winkler in June 132 golfers aged 50 to 94 and yesterday near Lac du Bonnet at MB's premiere golf course Granite Hills. Rumored that some rode rather than walking the course.

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  9. Thats a for sure way to stay cool, If I had the choice while at a golf course I'd ride rather than having to walk in the searing heat. Seniors are quite vulnerable to heat especially the ages you listed.

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  10. Not true, that any dove into Lee River to fetch dropsondes from the Hurricane Irene Hunters. They were just practicing their channel swimming.

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  11. are you talking about hurricane irene? tell me more please.

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  12. Rob or anyone Where is a good site(s) to monitor the wind and wave action at Gimli, Winnipeg Beach and Victoria/Grand Beaches today. Some reports Today of 2 to 3 foot rise in the lake (south Basin) w/higher wave action?

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  13. Anonymous..

    If you go to my blog post of Aug 16th about strong winds on the Winnipeg lakes, there are some links there for water levels and current marine weather (including wave heights) on the MB lakes.

    Unfortunately there are no real time observations of winds and waves from shoreline areas.. wave heights are from a buoy in the middle of the south basin.

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  14. Thanks for that reference. found some help by going west from
    http://www.buoyweather.com/wxnav6.jsp?program=nww3BW1&grb=grl&region=LKS&latitude=50&longitude=-5.0&zone=-5&units=e

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  15. Chance for convection late tomorrow evening... looking a bit better than the past few non-events. Decent LLJ of 30-40 kts should advect 15-17 C Tds northwards ahead of a cold front. Forcing and convergence along back edge of that LLJ and cold front, along with a wave tracking over far southern Manitoba may be enough trigger storms along the northern edge of the cap. Strong shear to work with as well. Activity would likely come thru between 10 PM and midnight..

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