Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Snowfall warning issued for WInnipeg/RRV.. 10-20 cm of snow possible Wednesday

A snowfall warning has been issued for Winnipeg and the Red River Valley for Wednesday as a storm system from Colorado moves into Minnesota. Snow from this system will spread into southern Manitoba after midnight and become heavier towards morning.  Snow is expected to move into Winnipeg around 3 am overnight, and become heavier by 6 am or so with 2-5 cm of new snow by the morning rush hour.  Plan to allow extra time to get to work or school tomorrow morning as the commute will be slow due to snow covered roads and slippery conditions. A period of moderate to heavy snow is expected through the morning with snowfall rates of 1-2 cm/hr at times giving another 5-10 cm by midday before snow eases off in the afternoon and evening with another 5 cm or so. This will make for a very slow commute for the drive home (unless everyone leaves earlier because of the storm) All in all, 12-20 cm is possible for Winnipeg by Wednesday night. Occasional light snow will continue Wednesday night into Thursday morning with another couple cm possible. Winds will also pick up later Wednesday into Wednesday night so drifting and some blowing snow will become an issue although bulk of snow will be over by then.

Models coming in line that heaviest swath of snow tomorrow will set up somewhere from the Pilot Mound-Altona area north through Winnipeg into southern Lake Winnipeg region. 10-20 cm possible within this swath. 10 cm outside this main area. Dry slot will give lesser amounts to our southeast and has pushed the heavier band further west.. which is why initial forecast of heavier amounts southeast of Winnipeg has changed. That's what the latest guidance is saying.. now let's see how it all pans out. Got my snow ruler ready!

STORM UPDATE

A snowy commute home for Winnipeg drivers as a band of
heavy snow crosses the city in time for "rush" hour
(photo credit: Winnipeg Free Press)
Light snow started up in Winnipeg around 2 am and by 8 am, I measured 2.4 cm at my site in Charleswood. Snow started to pick up in intensity through the morning with another 4 cm by noon. Snow continued steady but fairly light through the afternoon, before a heavier snowband pushed through the city from 3-5 pm dumping 5 cm of snow in 2 hours at my site. I recorded a storm total of 14 cm by 5 pm, and 15.5 cm by 6:30 pm. Winds were generally light through much of the event, although they started to pick up late in the afternoon into the evening out of the northwest causing some blowing and drifting snow. General snowfall amounts of 10-15 cm were common through the Red River valley and SE Manitoba up to the evening. Snow continued Wednesday night with another 5 cm by Thursday morning. Storm total at my site was 20.5 cm.  

16 comments:

  1. By the way, it looks like Woodlands radar is back in operation.. although it could be intermittent with testing until Friday. Hopefully it stays running most of the next 36 hours!

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  2. So glad you are posting frequently again it is much appreciated!

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  3. Yep nice to see regular posts again. Thanks.
    Noticing Woodlands is showing mixed composite and complete images on the "A weather Moments" site but not displaying the composites on the EC site and instead they are just skipping the missed frames. (For example the 1420 utc image). It sure would be nice to get another site to give decent overlap and/or have something at Woodlands that was more reliable.

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    1. Just noticed the previously skipped images are now showing on the EC site and Weather Moments has two images showing for each time segment one of which is a composite. Maybe their way of addressing the Woodlands outages.

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    2. I think it's also because I have the radar pointed to the old AWM radar tumblr link.. I'll have to update it to remove the tumblr reference.

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  4. Up to 12 cm now at my place in SW Winnipeg.. got a good heavy burst over the last hour or so. About 3 cm in the past hour. Still snowing at a good clip..

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  5. Another 2 cm since 4 pm.. up to 14 cm as of 5 pm. Quite the snowburst over the past 2 hours.

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  6. Much more snow tonight?

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    1. Looks like it's clearing on the us radar.

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    2. Woodlands radar shows snowbands wrapping around storm system over northern RRV and Winnipeg this evening which will likely continue much of the night. So we could see another 2-5 cm by morning, with some blowing and drifting snow thanks to increasing NW winds of 30 to 50 km/h. Certainly the main event is over, but there'll be nuisance snow lingering into Thursday morning.

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  7. Hi Rob,

    Do you have updated snowfall amounts?

    Thanks

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    1. I ended up with a storm total of 20 cm. Generally 15-20 cm over much of Winnipeg and RRV.. isolated spots near 25.

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  8. I read that the north basin of lake Winnipeg is still open water. Apparently it enhanced interlake snow totals particularly in Arborg..19 cm. How unusual is it that the lake is still open in Mid to late December. This seems to be more of a Great Lakes season than lake Winnipeg.

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  9. Another 4 to 5 CM with that moderate burst of snow late this afternoon. And now to add insult to injury if you wish another storm system is threatening possible significant snowfall for Tuesday night into Wednesday with another possible 10+ CM then followed by a rather chilly Christmas.

    Just a reminder on how things can change quickly in these parts.

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  10. Hi Rob,
    Love the blog. Do you have any update on the potential snow storm for Tuesday/Wednesday? Will this be another Colorado low?

    Thanks

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    1. Jeff..

      No, this next system coming Tuesday night is not a Colorado low, but it's a clipper coming from Montana that will spread an area of snow across North Dakota and into southern MB.. mainly over the Red River valley and SE MB. At this point, models are indicating about 5-10 cm possible for Winnipeg, with 10 cm or more possible near the US and Ontario borders. I'll be posting an update on my blog later tomorrow on this system.

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