Halloween Outlook

It's looking more likely that Halloween this Wednesday will be a chilly but dry evening. Models are indicating that Wednesday will start off blustery and cold with gusty northwest winds behind an intensifying low pressure system tracking into NW Ontario. This system could bring some rainfall to southern MB Tuesday night which may even mix with some wet snow overnight before ending early Wednesday morning. The rest of the day should see cloudy and windy conditions with below normal temperatures around +3C or so. A ridge of high pressure building in by evening should bring clearing skies as well as lighter winds to the Red River valley, but temperatures will likely be near the freezing mark by then. All in all, not a bad looking evening for the trick or treaters at this point. I will post updates as we get closer to Wednesday..

Growing season officially ends downtown

It took awhile, but the 2007 growing season officially ended this morning for downtown Winnipeg, with the Forks weather station recording a low of -1C. This is the first freezing temperature at the downtown site since April 17th when a low of -0.4C was recorded, giving the downtown core a growing season this year of a whopping 192 days.. or over 6 months. This has been evident with the abundance of flowers and even some vegetable gardens still living in many areas of the city, especially downtown.

Contrast this to the Winnipeg airport site, which had a frost as late as May 27th (-0.1c) and as early as Sept 14th (-1.4c) for a growing season of only 108 days, almost half the length of downtown. This shows the large difference in nighttime temperatures between the more open rural areas around the egde of the city, and the more urbanized downtown core.

Here at my station in Charleswood, the official growing season lasted from Apr 26th to Oct 14th, or 142 days.. a good average for the city in general. This just goes to show how basing the growing season solely on the Winnipeg airport site can be very misleading!

Gusty south winds bringing milder air in..

Strong southerly winds over southern MB are bringing in milder temperatures tonight which will persist into Thursday. Those southerly winds are particularly strong over Winnipeg and the Red River valley tonight with gusts to 60 km/h due to funnelling effects up the Red River valley. This will keep temperatures from falling much below the 10 degree mark tonight.. our normal high for this time of year. On Thursday, gusty southerly winds in the morning will diminish by afternoon and switch into the northwest as a cold front moves through. Temperatures however will climb into the upper teens by early afternoon before the cooler airmass arrives by evening. Note that this same airmass produced record highs in the 25c range over southern AB and southern SK today.

Windy week ahead..

A weak weather system will track into central MB tonight and into northwest Ontario Tuesday morning. This system will bring a few showers through the northern interlake and central MB regions tonight possibly mixing with some wet snow in places. As the system tracks into northwest Ontario Tuesday morning, gusty northwest winds will develop behind the system over southern MB with northwest winds of 40 to 60 km/h possible through midday Tuesday.

By Wednesday a more potent system coming off the Pacific is forecast to track across far northern SK moving north of the MB/NU border on Thursday. This system is forecast to deepen into an intense storm over Hudson Bay on Thursday into Friday, with very strong northwest winds and blizzard conditions possible over the Hudson Bay coastline including Churchill and much of the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. South of this intensifying storm system, gusty south to southwest winds will bring milder conditions over the southern Prairies by Wednesday with temperatures climbing to the 20 degree mark over southern SK and southwest MB on Wednesday. Look for gusty southerly winds of 40 to 60 km/h or more over the Red River valley on Wednesday with highs in the mid teens. The milder weather will be short lived however as gusty northwest winds on the backside of the intense Hudson Bay storm drives cooler weather across the eastern Prairies for the end of the week.

Sunshine!

Skies finally cleared over Winnipeg early this morning after 8 straight days of clouds and gloomy weather. The cloud is still not that far away however this morning as the western edge of the cloud has moved just east of the city, with clouds persisting over southeastern Manitoba in areas like Steinbach and the Whiteshell. A disturbance in Saskatchewan will bring some cloud back in tonight into Sunday morning over the Red River valley, however this higher level cloud should clear out by Sunday afternoon.

Rob's Weekend Forecast for Winnipeg..

TODAY.. Morning fog patches with locally dense fog giving near zero visibility at times. Otherwise mainly sunny and a lot more pleasant today than recent days. Little or no wind. Highs around 14c.
TONIGHT.. Increasing clouds. Calm winds. Lows near zero.
SUNDAY.. Slight chance of a morning shower otherwise morning clouds giving way to sunshine. Light winds. Highs near 14C.