Rainfall Summary

A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM PASSING SOUTH OF MANITOBA BROUGHT SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF RAIN TO PARTS OF SOUTHERN MANITOBA OVERNIGHT...WITH THE HEAVIEST RAIN FALLING SOUTH OF THE CITY OF WINNIPEG. THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME RAINFALL TOTALS FROM THE EVENT AS OF 7 AM THIS MORNING.

PILOT MOUND............ 57.2 MM
EMERSON................ 52.0 MM
GRETNA................. 50.6 MM
MORDEN................. 45.8 MM
STEINBACH.............. 36.6 MM
CARMAN................. 29.4 MM
SPRAGUE................ 27.0 MM

WINNIPEG (ST VITAL)...... 26.2 MM
Whyte Ridge ............. 20.4 MM
Charleswood (Rob's Obs).. 16.5 MM
WINNIPEG (AIRPORT)....... 10.5 MM

Steamy Saturday

Whew.. it's a sweltering one out there today. As of 2 pm, my weather station is showing 29C with a 23C dewpoint giving a humidex of 39C. Very uncomfortable. (A trick to estimate humidex.. add the temperature and dewpoint in C, then subtract 13). Even more oppressive down to our south with Emerson checking in with a 42C humidex as of 2 pm (temp 32C dewpoint 23c) The hot and humid airmass will trigger a few thunderstorms this afternoon as a cold front approaches from the northwest. A few of thes storms may become severe, with large hail and damaging winds being the main threats. Isolated tornadoes are also possible given the extreme instability today. EC has issued a severe thunderstorm watch this afternoon for much of southern Manitoba including Winnipeg. Stay tuned and keep an eye to the sky if you're out and about today.

River Heights weather site joins Winnipeg mesonet

Another personal weather station (PWS) has come online in the Winnipeg area.. this one from River Heights (click here for data) This station came online a couple of days ago, and uses a Davis Vantage Pro 2 for data collection (very good quality station) Winnipeg now has at least 11 PWS sites around the city reporting real time data online to augment the official weather observations from Winnipeg Airport and Winnipeg Forks. Great to see, and welcome to the Winnipeg mesonet! Data from these sites are automatically plotted on my city temperature map, and included on the Winnipeg area PWS table as well as on a Google map.

Personal weather stations (PWS) are becoming more and more popular, where private citizens or organizations are purchasing their own weather stations, and posting their data automatically to the web for anyone to see in real time. It's a growing hobby, and one that is fast gaining interest from many users who rely on quick and reliable real time weather information from more and more sites. This is especially important for rainfall measurements which can vary widely even within a city itself. (as we've seen these past few weeks..)

Heat building across western Prairies

A building ridge of high pressure in the upper atmosphere over western Canada will bring sunshine and increasingly hot temperatures this week over the Prairies.. especially over southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Temperatures are expected to hit the 30 degree mark today and soar into the mid to upper 30s by mid to late week. In fact, it's possible that some areas of southeastern Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan may hit the 40 degree mark by Friday. (watch out for Val Marie, SK on Friday.. they could hit 42C if the models are right..)

Southern MB will not be quite as hot as we'll be on the eastern edge of the building heat wave. However, it does look like we'll be hitting the 30 degree mark by the end of the week into the weekend. Most of the week looks dry, although models hint at some instability the next couple of days which could produce isolated pop-up thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Most areas however should remain rain free this week.. a welcome change from the unsettled stormy pattern of the past few weeks.

JUNE 2007 HIGHLIGHTS..

AVERAGE TEMP: 18.9 C ( 1.3C above normal)
RAINFALL: 118.9 mm (29.6 mm above normal)
(* Rob's Obs stats)

...WET AND WILD..

June 2007 will be remembered for its wet and often stormy weather that produced heavy rainfall and some of the most severe weather seen in southern Manitoba in many years. Rainfall for the month totalled 119 mm at my site, about 30 mm above normal, with even heavier rainfall amounts of 150 mm or more in other parts of the city (official airport total : 125 mm). Frequent thunderstorm activity was responsible for the heavy precipitation amounts, with at least 7 days with thunderstorms during the month. It was particularly stormy during the third week of June when thunderstorms were recorded on 6 of 7 days between the 18th and 26th. This period included a memorable severe weather outbreak on the 22nd and 23rd of June that produced at least 5 tornadoes across southern Manitoba, including an F4 that hit Elie, MB on the 22nd, and two F3s that hit southwest MB on the 23rd. The severe outbreak also produced damaging winds on the night of the 23rd causing widespread damage through the Whiteshell cottage area, with a gust of 107 km/h at the Winnipeg airport. Large hail was also recorded early on the 24th in north Winnipeg. The stormy wet weather has made it a challenging season for area farmers who have had to deal with wet fields, as well as wind and hail damage to crops.

The wet weather this June is in sharp contrast to the record dry weather last year. Consider that this year's rainfall in June alone was more than all of May, June, July and August combined last year (114 mm total) In addition, the 2 month total of 203 mm this May and June is equivalent to the entire rainfall recorded in all of 2006! (at my location) The stormy weather pattern this year is due to a storm track that has set up through the Dakotas with weather systems coming in every few days tapping warm moist air to the south and bringing showers and thunderstorms across southern MB. This is highlighted by the fact that the longest rain-free period during June 2007 was only 3 days.

Temperatures for the month were generally near to slightly above normal, with variable spells of warm and cool weather offsetting each other. Temperatures ranged from a high of 31C on the 12th to a cool 2c on the 5th, when patchy frost was recorded around the city.

All in all.. a wet and wild month.