Oh no! More snow!

It will be back to winter like weather over southern Manitoba Monday as a storm system intensifies over the Dakotas and tracks into northern Minnesota by Monday night. A band of snow is expected to spread into the Winnipeg area by mid morning Monday, with snow intensifying through midday into the afternoon before tapering off Monday evening. Snowfall accumulations will be tricky as some of the snow will be melting on impact, and there will be milder air over southeast MB that will change snow to rain for awhile over parts of southeast MB. For Winnipeg, precipitation should remain as snow with a good 5-10 cm expected by late afternoon, and perhaps 10-13 cm by the time it ends Monday evening if we get under some heavier bands. The best bet for heaviest snow will be towards the Ontario border where 10-20 cm is possible Monday into Monday night.    

UPDATE:  (9:30 am Monday): Latest guidance and radar indicating Winnipeg will be on western edge of this system with bulk of snow mainly east and southeast of the city. Winnipeg will likely still see some wet snow by late morning into this afternoon, but amounts should be minimal with perhaps 2 cm or less on grassy surfaces. Roads will just be wet. Wet snow may even mix with rain here at times today as temperatures stay above freezing. Heavier snow will be confined just to the east and southeast of Winnipeg in places like Steinbach, Whiteshell and Falcon Lake where 5-15 cm of snow is possible through this evening.  

How unusual is heavy snow in late April? 

Although not common, snowstorms are certainly not unheard of in late April or even May in Winnipeg and the Red River valley. Consider these top 10 late season snowfalls (daily) that have occurred in Winnipeg after April 15th. As the table shows, heavy snowfalls have occurred in Winnipeg well into the 3rd week of May.

TOP 10 LARGEST DAILY SNOWFALLS AFTER APRIL 15  
              (WINNIPEG DATA 1872 - 2016)

1.  29.0 cm ............ May 11 2004
2.  21.1 cm ............ May 1 1967
3.  20.8 cm ............ Apr 27 1966
4.  20.3 cm ............ May 19 1931
5.  20.0 cm ............ May 9 2002
6.  17.3 cm ............ Apr 24 1937
7.  16.5 cm ............ Apr 25 1960
8.  15.2 cm ............ May 20 1882
9.  14.0 cm ............ Apr 19 1996
10. 13.0 cm ........... May 5 1938

In 1958, a full fledged blizzard hit Winnipeg on April 28th with 5-10 cm of snow blown by 80-100 km/h winds along with frigid temperatures of -10 to -13C.

Dry April weather continues.. next significant rain threat Friday.

It's been a dry spring so far in southern MB, welcome news for residents in the Red River valley who were looking at potentially major flooding this spring. There has been no measurable precipitation so far in April in Winnipeg and much of the RRV, and this week is also looking dry, until Friday. (There is a slight chance of some light showers Tuesday night, but amounts will not be significant). The next threat of any appreciable rain over the Red River valley will be Friday as a storm system tracks through the Interlake bringing a band of rain across southern MB. Early indications are for rainfall amounts of 5-15 mm with this system, but it's still several days away and there's still a lot of model spread on overall precip amounts. Colder weather will follow in the wake of this system for Easter weekend, with even a chance of snowflurries for Easter Sunday. Long range guidance is indicating the potential for another precipitation bearing system over southern MB for the April 17-19th time period.