Saturday, May 02, 2009

April 2009 stats and snowfall summary

April 2009 finished with a monthly mean temperature of +3.3C at Winnipeg airport, 0.7C below normal of +4.0C. This makes April the fifth month in a row that has finished below normal, and the 11th of the past 15 months with monthly mean temperatures cooler than average. The main story for April 2009 was the absence of heat, rather than any major cold spells, that kept temperatures below normal. The highest temperature for the month was only 18C, the first time since 1997 that Winnipeg hasn't hit the 20C mark during April. The month started with a cruel April Fool's joke from Mother Nature with a 13 cm snowfall on the last day of March into April 1st. That was the last significant snowfall of the winter (we hope!) bringing the total seasonal snowfall for the winter of 2008-09 to 126 cm at my site, some 16 cm above the Winnipeg average snowfall of 110 cm.

Snowfall stats from 2008-09 - Charleswood
(Winnipeg averages in brackets)

October 2008.......... 0.0 cm (5 cm)
November 2008 ..... 15.0 cm (21 cm)
December 2008 ...... 28.2 cm (20 cm)
January 2009 ......... 28.6 cm (23 cm)
February 2009 ...... 14.0 cm (14 cm)
March 2009 .......... 35.0 cm (16 cm)
April 2009 ............ 5.6 cm (10 cm)

TOTAL................ 126.4 cm (110 cm)

24 comments:

  1. Rob .... I think your right!
    Looks more and more likely there is going to be a chance (a small window) of a few thunderstorms developing along a cold front tomorrow!

    It's just to bad the moisture return looks weak at best so the storm will have very little moisture to work with!!

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  2. Latest progs are slower with that frontal trough Monday, with better pcpn chances west of RRV by evening. Tstm chances still looking marginal given limited surface moisture input.

    By the way, I've changed my FLOOD WATCH icon to SPC's TSTM OUTLOOK link.. as the convective season fast approaches!

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  3. Rob Is that a continuing pattern of cooler later Spring and warmer later and wetter fall ??

    Vague memory that in the early mid 70s the Golf courses were open the third week of may in Winnipeg

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  4. Seems that way.. over the past decade or so, a trend to back-loaded winters that start later and end later. Not every winter, but many of them.. I can see how a warmer Arctic would equate to later starting winters, but somehow it also seems to be contributing to prolonged below normal conditions into the spring. A lag effect? Other climatic influences?

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  5. Rob!
    Why did Environment Canada get rid of the term "thundershower"???

    Now they use "risk of a thunderstorm"

    Is "thundershower" no longer used???

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  6. Yes, thundershower is no longer a term used by EC in the prairies.. only thunderstorm.

    Still looks like a potential for a line of thunderstorms developing over central Dakotas this afternoon ahead of cold frontal trough moving through SK/MT. Best focus will be south of the border where there's better lift and low level moisture, but thunderstorms still possible into SE SK and far SW MB by evening. Modified GGW sounding yields potential CAPES of 1200 J/kg which can support locally strong winds/large hail with tstm activity.

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  7. As of 3:03 pm Winnipeg airport has finally hit it's first 20 C of the year!
    Finally!

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  8. Rob!
    I was just on "Tornado Video.net"
    website and they have a storm chaser that is situated in Winnipeg ( oak bluff to be exact)!

    His name is Justin Hobson!
    It says he is part of the U of M storm chase team....yet he has live steaming video for "tornado videos.net"

    Interesting!

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  9. This Justin??? from April 7 Rob's Blog post ... Justin H said...
    I Created a facebook group for our University of Manitoba Storm Chase Team…

    I linked it to Rob's blog because I find it so informative.

    Search 'University of Manitoba Storm Chase Team' and request to join. Open to people experienced in weather, and to whoever has facebook...

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  10. Yep.. that's him. Justin is an avid storm chaser whose main claim to fame is videotaping the entire Elie tornado from start to finish!

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  11. Rob.
    It looks like there could be a chance of a pop up thunderstorm!

    The sky has that look to it this morning!

    Lots of daytime heating cumulus clouds and with that low pressure right overhead maybe something will "POP UP"!

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  12. Rob, so the difference in terminology between a thunderSTORM and a thunderSHOWER is that a SHOWER means precip., whereas a STORM just means cloudy, overcast skies -- like that produced after several days of chemtrails.

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  13. Daniel P...

    Join our Storm Chase Team! I'll approve your request on Facebook.

    I will be streaming via cell signal for Reed Timmer this summer when I go chasing on our side of the border. There are so many American chasers, but very few Canadian ones. I met up with Reed down in Seymour, Texas in April and I've been set up to stream. I've tested it out from my backyard and it works great. I've purchased a cell antenna too so that my cell signal doesn't drop when I enter those rural areas.

    So whenever SouthMan is under the gun for severe weather, check out my live stream...I'm also running MobileThreatNet (U of M purchase), so I'll be able to track and get up close to the business end of the storm!

    You can check out the webpage I created to (my name is the link), but it's still a work in progress...(ignore the password part)

    click the GRLevel3 & Live Streaming link (in red) on the page so you can avoid the congestion on the tornadovideos.net live stream page.
    The GRLevel3 imagery on that page runs off of my computer and I'll center it around my chase area (If KMOT and KMVX can reach) on that day so you can track the storms

    Cheers,

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  14. Thanks Justin.. great links! Just checked in with the live streaming video.. great stuff!

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  15. First thunder and lightning of the year in Steinbach today!!!

    We got 0.8mm of rain, at a max rainfall rate of 28.9mm/hr.

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  16. Kudos to TWN. and ROBs OBs . TWN remain optimistic that it will get to 15C by noon and then remain at 10C all day. If I hadn't checked the new roses os and then looked at ECs forecast I might still be going golfing today. OBs gave me a quick look at ECs forecast (4C) and nasty

    PS That should have been the 3rd week of MAR (not May) courses were open in 72 or 73

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  17. Brrrr....
    cold enough for some snow flurries today!
    Just a miserable day out there with a cold north wind and drizzle!
    Sigh!

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  18. Good grief, afternoon highs stuck at 2 C ... ridiculous.

    Very shallow layer of cold air and moisture beneath inversion at 850 hPa doing us in today. 10 C isotherm following elevation contours somewhat. Estevan to Grand Forks and then curving NE thru the higher elevation areas of International Falls.

    850 hPa temps not all that warmer in American RRV where Fargo is basking at 17 C. Cold air advection getting funneled down thru the interlake and northern RRV while higher elevations west and east stay warmer. This is a common occurrence it seems?

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  19. ..and the prognosis for tomorrow looks bleak...

    Continued cold advection will lead to 850 hPa temps of -5 C by Friday afternoon (down from just above freezing today). 850 hPa relative humidity fields look very similar to today. GFS hints at possible clear breaks tonite off to our SW before clouds fill in again.

    All in all, I do not see us reaching 6 C as per EC's forecast. I think 1 or 2 C is about it... dismal.

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  20. It just seems endless. We keep getting whacked with cold air masses from the northwest and each time it occurs it takes 4 days to slowly creep back up to anything resembling normal temps. Sure seems like in the past couple Springs in particular we're in a totally different pattern than from "the gold old days" with warm temps in April/May not at all unusual

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  21. Take a look at the radar!
    It looks like a lake effect snow or rain squall is forming off Lake Manitoba!

    I hear you Mark!
    This spring has very cool so far with no real "heat waves" in sight!

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  22. Looks like a large storm system will affect the area early next week with a lot of rain and wind!

    Wonderful.....

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  23. Temperatures forecast remains tricky...

    Thinning of clouds over the interlake and northerly flow allowed for at least some temperature recovery today at Winnipeg. Note however that areas remaining in the thicker clouds are sitting at 1 to 2 C in the Pembina hills area of Manitoba and at Langdon ND.

    Cloud trends will be all important for tonite and tomorrow. If holes continue to develop in the interlake temps could quickly spike down. Cold pool and moisture hangs around for tomorrow and at the same time weaker high pressure finally builds in. Will it be enough to finally scour out these low clouds? Sunday morning could potentially be very chilly if clearing does occur. What's your hunch Rob?

    Return flow commences on Monday and strong LLJ develops ahead of large storm system tracking over the northern prairies. The 60 kt LLJ will supply decent moisture/instability at 850 hPa and interact with the left exit region of an upper jet core to produce precip potential by Tuesday morning.

    GFS show LI's reaching -4 over parts of Manitoba, so I would not be surprised if we see some elevated convection firing up over RRV/SE Manitoba. Some training of cells may occur but LLJ shifts eastwards in fairly progressive manner.

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  24. With such a light flow, I suspect this low cloud deck will hang in much of Saturday night into Sunday morning.. could even cheat us out of sunshine for Mom's day..

    Sure wish we could get into a sustained spell of warm dry weather. But that doesn't look likely according to the progs for the upcoming week!

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