Enjoy today.. sharply cooler tomorrow

Today will be the mildest day of the holiday weekend as gusty southerly winds push temperatures up to 18-20C over southern MB with morning sunshine giving way to high cloudiness during the day. A southerly breeze will keep temperatures mild tonight, with lows of 10-12C . Early Monday however, a sharp cold front will sweep across southern MB from the north, bringing strong northerly winds and falling temperatures. In Winnipeg, the front is expected to pass through between 5 and 8 am, dropping temperatures from sunrise values near 12C to about 5C during the morning, remaining steady or recovering only slightly in the afternoon. This will lead to a widespread frost Tuesday morning across southern MB with morning lows of –2 to -5C likely under clear skies and light winds.

Cooler than normal weather is expected for much of the upcoming week with showers possible Wednesday. The good news is that long range guidance is finally indicating a nice prolonged warmup by next weekend with temperatures in the 20s, hopefully taking us through the end of May.

Tis the spring of our discontent.. Heavy snow falls north of Winnipeg

An Alberta clipper system tracking through southern Manitoba overnight brought a swath of heavy wet snow through western MB and the Interlake.. just as people were looking forward to the unofficial start of summer this holiday weekend. The heaviest snow fell through the northern Riding Mountain area through Dauphin and the Lake Manitoba Narrows into the central Interlake where 20-30 cm of snow was reported. The photo here is from Dauphin which received about 20 cm of the white stuff overnight. Other snowfall reports included..

McCreary................ 30 cm
Grandview.............. 30 cm
Eddystone................ 30 cm
Roblin 3 NW............ 30 cm
Russell......................25-30 cm
Hodgson................... 27 cm (east of Ashern)
Gilbert Plains............. 24 cm
Bissett......................... 23 cm
Moosehorn.................. 20 cm+
Dauphin.................. 20 cm
Roblin...................... 20 cm
Laurier.................... 20 cm
Alonsa......................20 cm
Eriksdale................ 20 cm
Ethelbert................ 20 cm
Fisher Branch..........20 cm
Rossburn................... 14 cm
Inglis..................... 12 cm
Riverton................ 9 cm
Gimli......................7 cm

Further south of these regions, precipitation was in the form of rain although temperatures in the low single digits were well below normal for mid May. The system is quickly clearing out of the province today today and will be followed by drier and milder weather for Saturday and Sunday, before another cooldown for holiday Monday.

The satellite image here from the morning of the 16th reveals where the heaviest snow fell with this system. Note the white swath of snow across the Riding Mtns into the Interlake regions and east of Lake Winnipeg. A small streamer of snow also extended south of Lake Winnipeg through Beausejour.

Clipper to bring snow to western MB and Interlake.. rain south

An Alberta clipper will track through the Dakotas overnight and bring an area of rain and snow to southern MB tonight into Friday morning. Rain will spread into southern MB from the west tonight, but will change to snow over the higher elevations of western MB through the Riding Mountain and Duck Mountains areas. Snow will be heavy at times tonight in these areas with 10-20 cm possible, especially along the eastern slopes and over higher elevations. The highway 5 corridor from Dauphin to Roblin and Highway 10 corridor north of Hwy 5 through Ethelbert and Pine River are under the gun for heavy snow tonight. This snow will track east into the central and northern interlake regions overnight into Friday, bringing heavy snow to the Hwy 6 corridor mainly north of Lundar. Further south, precipitation will arrive in the form of rain tonight, with about 5-10 mm of rain possible in Winnipeg and the northern RRV overnight into Friday morning.

Thunderstorms possible late Tuesday

The season's first general threat of thunderstorms is possible Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday evening as a cold front approaches southern MB from the west. Temperatures near 20C along with dewpoints of 10-13C will provide the fuel for shower and thunderstorm development ahead of the cold front.. with favourable windshear giving the potential for locally strong storms giving heavy rain and large hail in some areas. Stay updated on these potential storms with comments on this blog thread, as well as GRlevel3 radar data and streaming video (if available) from local storm chaser Justin Hobson.

Say it ain't snow!

Winnipeggers started their weekend with a fresh coating of snow Saturday morning as an unseasonably cold airmass persists over southern MB. Snow will taper off this morning but cloudy and cold conditions will continue today before temperatures start moderating Sunday into Monday. Unfortunately a change to warmer drier weather pattern does not look likely in the near term as unsettled and cooler weather moves in again for the upcoming week.