Thursday, October 06, 2011

Very windy conditions Friday..

It's been a windy day over Winnipeg and the Red River valley with southerly winds gusting to 70 km/h at times this afternoon. But even stronger winds are possible Friday as a cold front pushes across southern Manitoba. This front will be accompanied by a band of showers as well as some isolated thunderstorms as it moves across the Red River valley in the afternoon. Behind the front, a strong south-southwest push of cooler air will flood in, with gusts to 80 km/h at times. These strong southerly winds will persist through the afternoon before diminishing somewhat by evening. Cooler and breezy conditions are expected Saturday behind the front with lighter winds and more pleasant conditions Sunday. A few showers are possible by Thanksgiving Monday.

9:10 am UPDATE: A wind warning has been issued for the Red River valley including Winnipeg for very strong southerly winds this afternoon gusting to 90 km/h or higher. Click here for real time Winnipeg airport wind readings (in knots)

46 comments:

  1. Are those Tstorms we see moving thru SW ND later this evening expected to reach the northern RRV. or will they dissipate in the early am?

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  2. Thunderstorms, high's in the 20's and high winds behind cold front...sounds like weather in July!!

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  3. NWS out of Grand Forks states that areas in the high wind watch could have wind gusts as high as 96 km/h!!

    Nice write up on the discussion at 2:00 p.m

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  4. Is thunderstorm rare in Manitoba in October? Normally it strikes between late May and early September, peaking in July.

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  5. I remember very well the thunderstorms of Oct 25, 2008, but as far as I'm concerned, ya they're not very common at this time, but do happen. Only February has a thunderstorm never been reported (WPG).

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  6. Yes Jim....large area of storms and heavy rain in South Dakota entering into North Dakota.
    Really did not think I would be talking about storms in October!!

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  7. High Wind warning issed stateside.
    Winds will also border on warning criteria here.

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  8. the stench of burned scrub from the fires near Roseau MN is overpowering last nite & this morning. I for one can hardly wait until the cold front goes thru and shifts the surface wind away from the fires and brings these high evening "low" temps back to where they belong for this time of the year!

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  9. Latest upper analyses and RUC forecasts indicating southerly winds of 50-60 kts above 925 mb this morning, with southerly LLJ of 45-55 kt persisting this afternoon into this evening over RRV when best dynamics are in place to transport these higher winds to the surface as cold front crosses region. Cold advection is weak and pressure rises are minimal as front passes through, but good unidirectional flow, unstable profile, lack of stabilizing inversion, and favourable fetch up the valley will likely bring gusts of 45-50 kts (80-90 km/h) to the surface through the RRV including Winnipeg between mid afternoon and early evening with the potential for locally higher gusts of 50-55kt (90-100 km/h) in a few spots. With many trees still fully leaved, there will be potential for some tree damage. Wind warning criteria is sustained winds of 70 km/h or gusts of 90 km/h or more, so wind warning criteria may be reached in some areas. PASPC discussion does mention that wind warnigns may be required for parts of srn MB today. Stay tuned.. One thing's for sure.. we'll be losing a lot more leaves today!

    BTW, Winnipeg recorded a low of only 19.1C this morning, which will be the warmest low ever for October if it can stay above 17.2C through midnight tonight.

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  10. BTW Rob Although the official Charleswood EC records begin in 2004 , Your website records date from November 2001.
    Will you be publishing averages(Norms) for the 10 year period ending at the end of this month or this Year.

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  11. Jim..

    Probably not. Although I have the data back to 2001, it's not in a nice spreadsheet that could easily compute those 10 year averages. I'd have to input all that data into a spreadsheet manually, which would require some time.

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  12. The defoliation of St Vital Park will likely be complete by 3pm. The winds appear to be gusting 70-80 in the RRV..CWB is reporting gusts >70Km immediately south of Winnipeg near Kackenhoffs Nursery on Pembina Hwy Glenlea Station and Kelbourn Farm. Hallock Airport reports 79Km.

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  13. Gusting to 43 kt (80 km/h) at the airport already! Good dry slot with sunshine making things even more unstable.. hold on to your hats today!

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  14. Wind is just howling at my New place downtown. I have a nice view of the Red River and it looks like a good day to go surfing!!

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  15. Rob!
    You probably don't know the answer for this but I'll ask....
    On a day like today with 60-90 km/h winds at the airport is that enough to ground some aircraft???

    How high would the winds have to get at the airport before they ground everything???

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  16. Another source of current wind info and wind forecast for Winnipeg Airport is Windfinder web site.
    Wind Forecast Airport

    http://www.windfinder.com/weatherforecast/winnipeg_airport

    AirportWind Report

    http://www.windfinder.com/report/winnipeg_airport

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  17. Good question Daniel. One Might also ask it of St Andrews airport.

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  18. As a retired pilot I can say there is no surface wind limitation on an aircraft except for crosswind. Generally you do not want a 90 degree crosswind component of more than 15 knots for most large aircraft. YouTube has some interesting video of large B-747 type a/c landing with 'crab on' as they plunk onto the runway. It can be done but it hurts tires and landing gear!

    For small recreational aircraft these winds would make it almost impossible to taxi to the active runway. It just makes sense to stay inside the hangar or leave the a/c tied down for the time surface winds are as strong as your takeoff speed.

    For those a/c operating on floats - well the water conditions make landing and take-off extremely challenging! I've landed on a small lake in winds as strong as today in an Otter. The a/c goes so slow relative to the ground that when it hits the water it's almost like standing still but handling the beast to the dock is very tricky. Landing on a large body of water with rolling waves could damage the floats. Best to leave it tied to the dock for the day until the wind abates.

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  19. This Nav Canada link could be useful for wind info at CYWG

    http://atm.navcanada.ca/atm/iwv/CYWG

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  20. Thanks for the Live Nav Link Anon and Rob. I notice the wind gusts on the Winni26 Site at Pembina and Bishop Grandin are now gusting to 98.1Km and have been up to 133.5Km this am.
    Are those winds next to the WebCam site on top of the building?
    In St Vital park There are still a few trees with leaves . Unfortunately that webcam isn't showing that direction. The timelapse would be an interesting study.

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  21. Jim

    Winni26 is in St Vital at St Anne's and Fermor, and he's got his anemometer well elevated at about 40-50 feet up. Click on my name for a photo of his setup. I've noticed that the wind readings from his site are on the high side.. especially gusts which are sometimes unrealistically high (like today)

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  22. Sorry for the confusion. the Summerland/ Pembina Bishop Grandin Webcam site links it as "View my personal Weather Station"

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  23. Wind gusts of 45-50kt being reported now in eastern North Dakota in the dry slot behind this band of cloud over the RRV which I assume is along the cold front, although no pcpn on it. Those winds should be spreading into the RRV over the next couple of hours so I would expect our winds to increase to warning levels by 4 or 5 pm, especially as we get into some of that dry slot sunshine and instability.

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  24. CB- rolled over the Westwood area at 15:30 local. some very light rain with thunder noted. Five minutes later a sunny but windy sky prevailed. My AM radio is just crackling from the lightning strikes.

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  25. Ya what a shock, right when I got home could hear lots of thunder, and the cloud had developped so fast, just stunned it's October right now.

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  26. Cell developed right over Winnipeg.. gave me a quick 0.5 mm rain at 3:30 pm. Nice looking convective cell just to our north now. Looks like something from August.. not October! Surprisingly not much wind from it..

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  27. Wind gusts are pretty strong now here in St Vital. I was out on a walk with the wind blowing at my face. Whenever we got a big gust, it was a bit of a struggle to walk haha

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  28. Dew points dropping rapidly now after peaking in mid teens with that line of convection. Strongest winds will be over the next few hours behind cold front.. airport gusting to 44 kts now (82 km/h).. 45-50 kt gusts (83-93 km/h) possible from now until 8 pm or so.

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  29. Checked around for wind damage in the south end, and saw some ripped and collapsed fences, and even an uprooted tree. Wind is unbelievable. Can't wait for it to calm!

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  30. Peak gust 51 knots (95 km/h) at YWG airport past few minutes!

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  31. There's been 3 power bumps in Windsor Park since 5pm where my MTS TV has gone out and my computer has been restarted.

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  32. HOLY....
    THE wind is just HOWLING ...The air is filled with dust and small debris!!!

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  33. When I got off work...a very strong gust of wind hit and I thought the flag was gonna get ripped off the pole.
    A few tree branches got broken off!!

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  34. Someone neglected to tell these trees on the River bank that when leaves are stripped, they don't need to bow completely to the ground in a moderate 100K afternoon breeze.

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  35. As I was on my home on the bus from school we got caught in quite the downpour of rain, no thunder though. Crazy October weather never seen a thunderstorm like the ones august during the fall. Im satisfied until our next summer. The winds are wicked right now in St. james our lights were flickering off and on throughout the evening. 90Km/h winds are insane.

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  36. I don't like these winds this strong. I just feel very nervous about these winds!

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  37. The wind is very strong out there tonight, and is creating several problems to people in and around winnipeg. click my name for a link to CJOB News about the problems caused by the high winds.

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  38. WHEW!
    Winds finally calming down.
    Reports of quite a bit of damage around town, with power lines down and tree branches down!

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  39. Power flashes to my south. Power lines coming down???

    Appears parts of South Winnipeg are in the dark!

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  40. WEATHER EVENT SUMMARY has been posted and there is some unoffical high wind gusts.
    Winnipeg south perimeter @ 109km/h

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  41. Wind warning ended. Time to go pick up my neighbour's shingles off my driveway!

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  42. quick note from CJOB on the strong winds:

    High winds cause power outages
    CJOB News Team reporting
    10/7/2011


    Manitoba Hydro is trying to restore power for 700 customers in Saint Norbert. High winds tripped up a feeder line and the wind has also caused sporadic outages all day across the city..

    There have also been reports of hydro lines being taken down by falling tree limbs so be watchful If you are travelling..


    That is probably why South winnipeg has no power still.

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  43. Record highs
    Record overnight lows
    Thunderstorms
    Severe winds

    We are only 7 days into October....WHAT is next???
    What a crazy start to the month.

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  44. Quite the day indeed..

    In addition to the power outages, CJOB also reporting that Hwy 59 is blocked after a wind gust picked up a camper trailer being towed by a truck, landing on the truck towing it, which then veered into oncoming traffic. Fortunately, no injuries. Now that's a strong wind gust!

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  45. Lucky they had the NHL party at the Forks last night instead of tonight. Imagine 95 km/h wind gusts slamming into all those concessions, tents and stages set up with all those people around. Could have been a serious situation.

    Bachman and Turner rocked by the way! ;)

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  46. I'm glad things turned out the way they did, weve already had a bad year with weather extremes that would of just topped the all time worst scenarios. Considering all the news stories of stage collapses and concert injuries/fatalities from this summer across canada. It would have made for the third horrifying high wind event at a concert/party gathering.

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