After several days of unseasonably warm temperatures, a cold front swept through Southern Manitoba late Friday bringing very strong winds mainly through the Red River Valley along with a few late season thunderstorms. The band of thunderstorms even produced pea to marble size hail in a few localities through the Interlake. Behind the front, very strong southerly winds developed by mid to late afternoon with gusts of 90 to 110 km/h recorded across much of the Red River Valley including Winnipeg. The winds were strong enough to bring down trees and power lines in parts of Winnipeg resulting in local power outages. The strong winds were also fanning two large brush fires south and east of Steinbach.
Some of the strongest wind gusts recorded Friday from Environment Canada and private weather monitoring sites:
South perimeter (Winnipeg)........ 108 km/h
Altona ........................................... 108 km/h
Winnipeg brady landfill............... 101 km/h
Oak Bluff ....................................... 100 km/h
Rosser ............................................. 98 km/h
Whyte ridge (Winnipeg) .............. 98 km/h
Lockport ........................................ 98 km/h
Miami ............................................. 98 km/h
Morris ............................................ 98 km/h
St. Laurent ..................................... 97 km/h
Winnipeg airport............................ 95 km/h at 6:09 PM
Steinbach ........................................ 95 km/h
Morden ............................................ 95 km/h
St. Adolphe....................................... 95 km/h
Narcisse ........................................... 93 km/h
darlingford ...................................... 93 km/h
Brunkild ........................................... 93 km/h
Fannystelle ..................................... 93 km/h
La Salle............................................. 91 km/h
Emerson ......................................... 89 km/h at 6:47 PM
Deerwood ...................................... 89 km/h at 3:27 PM
Portage la Prairie.......................... 89 km/h at 4:12 PM
Victoria Beach ................................ 89 km/h at 5:24 PM
At my site in Charleswood, my station's recently roof-mounted anemometer recorded a peak unadjusted wind gust of 76 km/h at 6:06 pm, the highest wind gust at my station since I installed it in Aug 2001. Note however that up until last month, my anemometer was never roof mounted but lower to the ground, so it's hard to compare with my previous wind history. Nevertheless, it was a strong wind event. Note that my website displays an adjusted wind speed that is 30% higher than the raw wind speed indicated by my weather station. This is to compensate for the less ideal exposure at my location, which is surrounded by trees and residential homes. I have found that 30% makes my wind readings more comparable to standard wind readings taken at well exposed sites at 10 metres (33 feet). Adjusting the raw peak gust value of 76 km/h by 30% would give a value of 98 km/h, which is line with peak gusts recorded in south Winnipeg Friday. I may tweak this adjustment factor down to 20-25% once surrounding trees are bare.
One wind event I won't be forgetting anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteOK question for you!
How rare is this set up to get these high winds out of the south.
Almost always the cold front passes the winds switch to the NW and howl as the front passes. This time the cold front passed and the very strong winds were out of the S
or SW.
Thankfully that Bomber game last night was not a Home Game.
ReplyDeleteThe bomber game at home last night.....LOL
ReplyDeletePierce back to pass , throws the ball and .....where did the ball go???? Oh it's in the parking lot!!!!
Interesting yesterday evening. I was mostly awake, and went out to take a look after things died down. It got very windy here in St. B (duh) but there were no visible signs of damage, just a lot of bare-er trees. Power flickered for about an hour and a half, with a few outages never lasting more than 5 minutes.
ReplyDeletedaniel..
ReplyDeleteYes, it was an unusual setup to get southerly winds behind a cold front at our latitude.. but it can happen from time to time. You need a highly amplified upper pattern (like we've been having lately) with a digging trof over the southwest US where the cooler air is coming in from the southwest, rather than the usual northwest source region. The storm system itself was moving north across southeast SK, (rather than tracking east in the more usual westerly flow setup) with the cold front sweeping in from the southwest. The cold front wasn't that dramatic in terms of temperature contrast at the surface, but it was a good convergence line with much drier air behind it and cooler air aloft. That is what allowed the stronger winds to surface behind the front.
Looks like a system is poised to hit us Sunday night into Monday. It will for sure help with the forest fire situation.
ReplyDeleteIs this system mostly missing us now? How about the rest of the week? Is it mostly going to be hit and miss rain or are we going to get a lot on tuesday, wednesday etc...?
ReplyDeleteDaryl..
ReplyDeleteMost of the rain from this first wave fell to our northwest towards the SK border.. with 15-20 mm or so. We got brushed with about 2-5 mm last night, and that should be it for the next day or two barring any hit or miss showers this afternoon and evening. Next organized threat is Wednesday, but doesn't look like much at this point.. perhaps another 5-10 mm.
Looks like a nice day shaping up tomorrow. Once we clear out of this low cloud, should see mainly sunny skies Monday with temperatures rising to the 20-21C mark in Winnipeg/RRV along with a southerly breeze of 20-30 km/h. More unsettled weather by Wednesday then cooler for the end of the week.
ReplyDeletehoping for some nice fall weather, although tomorrow there will likely be another low pressure system that could bring us some showers and isolated thunderstorms the chances are quite low for them though otherwise really nothing much to talk about.
ReplyDeleteThere was articles in today's Sun paper and free press about the quick hitting and cold winter for the prairies this year. Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteDan GF must be jumping for joy.
Could we ring out one last thunderstorm for the season today???
ReplyDeleteA cold front passing us this afternoon might give us a chance.
If you believe Accuweather's doom and gloom, winter starts before Halloween with the threat of accumulating snow.
ReplyDeleteSo 30C, a thunderstorm, and snow all in the span of 30 days? Why not?
Small storm to the west of Winnipeg. Could get a good shower later on this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteIs that towering thunderstorms clouds to my south and west....????? Is this mid October or Mid July???? Let me clean the sleep out of my eyes and double check the calender, an I'll get back to you.
ReplyDeleteIs that headline Get ready for a frigid winter just for BC and the west or are we exempt this year
ReplyDelete(was that thunder??)
As someone who grew up in Alberta, it's about time we got a nice little thundershower in October here!
ReplyDeleteNice storm( by October standards) through Downtown Winnipeg!
ReplyDeleteanother miss to end a bad year in the south end that's for sure. Won't complain though, any thunder in October is welcomed!! Grats to those who got direct hit!
ReplyDeleteLooking at radar, maybe a second round!
I know people in Elie and they say the sky is quite dark to their west with some cloud to ground lighting.
ReplyDeleteI would say a direct hit here in Windsor Park with a decent 5 minute downpour and alot of thunder.
ReplyDeleteJim: They are predicting the west could have a record breaker for cold this winter. They are also predicting a winter on the prairies at around 2 degrees below normal and less than normal precip.
got a quick 10mm here in fort garry
ReplyDeleteLucky, just got 0,2 mm in south St. Vital. Amazing how dramatic the difference was, a neighbour told me the downpour ended just 2 blocks away from our street as they came back from work! Grr :P
ReplyDeleteHi Rob and everyone else, check this webpage out!
ReplyDeleteIt's a very good read:
http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/
id/10786/group/weather/
Picked up a quick 4 mm in this afternoon's thunderstorm in Charleswood. Looks like the heaviest core of 5-10 mm fell mainly from Whyte Ridge/Ft Garry through downtown core into St B/Transcona.
ReplyDeleteHmmm.. 200 inches of snow this winter in ND? Maybe they meant 200 cm! :) (which is still a substantial winter snowfall of 80". Our normal winter snowfall in Winnipeg is a meager 110 cm (43 inches))
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I'm in no hurry for winter to start. I'm quite happy with our nice prolonged autumn we've been enjoying. No snow until December, and gone by March would be fine with me. And one major blizzard to keep things interesting. :)
remergence of showers and some isolated lightning strikes here and around the peg. Might get about 5mm or less in st.james. might be a 2nd round of storms for us.
ReplyDeleteRain continues to fall over Winnipeg this evening as slow moving band of showers bascially sits over city and expands in coverage. I'm up to 18 mm of rain on the day now in Charleswood, with about 12 of that falling since 10 pm, and it's still falling. Definitely wasn't expecting this much rain tonight.
ReplyDeleteHere in St. Bonifice we got 3mm last nigh with the passing thunderstorm, and an additional 11mm overnight with the continued showers. Plenty more than I was expecting!
ReplyDeleteSure is chilly out this morning, though :-(
Hi
ReplyDeleteThat 200 inch rumor wouldnt die....dont know where it came from. Some claimed it was from the Farmers Almanac...nope not according to them. Just one of those urban legends that got more wind than it needed. Wouldnt be suprised it was from someone around Minot-Bismarck who are quite skiddish after last years flooding.
Quite the storm last evening in Grand Forks....pea to one half inch size hail on south side of town just past 7 pm.
Quite the cold wind today...(cold compared to what we had last week)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of cold weather Daniel P, I'm planning to use Windfinder to look ahead at potential Lake effect snow this year.
ReplyDeleteIt is a web site which produces graphical 1 hr and 3 hr incremental wind,, temp, pcpn, pressure, and condition forecasts. Sites include Winnipeg and a few other other Prairie and North central US Lake and Airport locations. I have been using it for this years golfing , BBQing and Surfing plans with some success. Two forecast models... a 3 hr 7 day based on GFS and (reportedly more accurate) a 1 hr 3 day based on european regional models??
Windfinder Model info My Name or
http://www.windfinder.com/forecasts/forecast_models.htm
Forecasts and Super forecasts are available by menu selection at each Wind Report Location
Cdn Prairie Locations Map/List
http://www.windfinder.com/windreports/windkarte_alberta_manitoba_saskatchewan.htm
US North Cental Locations Map/List
http://www.windfinder.com/windreports/windkarte_minnesota_dakota.htm
I can not believe we will make Nov 26 before we have permanent winter snow.. Perhaps its early to think about winter, but its at least time to think of our first major snowfall and our earliest continuous on the ground snow.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a poll for these events. On occasion Poll result averages have been an accurate forecaster of snow related events.
What are the odds of before Nov 1st for both?
With skies clearing and winds diminishing, temps should get much colder than the 5 C overnight low that is forecast for Winnipeg.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think they were expecting some cloud cover to hang in over us along with some wind. However, we've cleared which has allowed our winds to drop off as winds decouple with nighttime cooling. There is some patchy cloud through the Interlake which may clip us from time to time tonight and prevent us from bottoming out too much, but overnight lows of zero to +1C or so seem likely.
ReplyDeleteThat northwest breeze will pick up again Saturday and especially Sunday as a large storms system intensifies over northern Ontario this weekend.
Thanks for the windfinder links Jim. I like that superforecast output!
ReplyDeleteanonymous..
ReplyDeleteWe usually see some snow before Nov 1st.. average October snowfall in Winnipeg is 5 cm, although it is highly variable with many Octobers seeing nothing, and some seeing quite a bit. Last October we had a dusting of snow on the evening of October 29th (higher amounts of 2-5 cm in the north end) which melted quickly, before we got our winter snowcover starting on Nov 18th. In 2009, we got an early 10 cm of snow on October 10th which melted, and then we were almost snowfree until Christmas.
Tough to say what will happen this year. The pattern seems to be getting more amplified recently (stronger upper troughs and ridges) which could increase odds for a stronger storm to affect us with some accumulating snow by the end of the month. Odds are though that permanent snow cover is not likely until mid November or so. Of course, Mother Nature always has the last word..
Extensive swath of cloud moving in over Winnipeg from the northwest.. that's bumped our temperature up from +1 to +3C as of 10 pm. Temperatures should be relatively steady or even rise slightly overnight, dropping again with any clear patches.
ReplyDeleteIn light of the many days of wind we've had recently, are we approaching any kind of record for wind this month? It just feels like we should be near a record event.
ReplyDelete