Fine stretch of summery weather ahead

After two weeks of below normal temperatures and unsettled conditions, the weather pattern will be shifting to a warmer and drier regime over the next week. Temperatures will be climbing into the mid 20s over the weekend into next week, with generally sunny skies and light winds. Normal highs for this time of year are around 20C so we'll be a good 5 degrees above that over the next week. Get out and enjoy it!

Some rain tomorrow.. then a warming trend later this week

A band of rain over southern SK is forecast to spread into southern Manitoba tonight into Monday. The rain is expected to reach Winnipeg and the Red River valley Monday morning. General amounts of 5-10 mm are expected with this band of rain, with local amounts of 15 mm. The rain should move off Monday night with some lingering cloud and a chance of showers for Tuesday. Warmer and drier weather is expected for the latter half of the week, with 20 degree temperatures likely returning by the weekend.

Snowflurries tonight?

After 2 days of rain, colder air is starting to sweep into southern Manitoba behind this storm system. Light rain continues over the Red River valley, but further northwest, rain has changed to snow over western Manitoba where there has been some accumulations north of Dauphin (see image here from Wellman Lake in the Duck Mtns) Winnipeg can expect to see additional light rain today into tonight with another 5 mm possible, but don't be surprised to see some flakes of wet snow overnight into Monday morning as colder air moves in. Accumulations are not expected here in the city, but there could be some areas that see a covering of slushy snow tonight into Monday morning. Another storm system tracking through the Prairies early this week is expected to bring more rain to southern Manitoba Tuesday, with wet snow possible again Tuesday night into Wednesday as another shot of cold air sweeps in. Welcome to May!

April 2010 ninth mildest in Winnipeg since 1872

Ideal spring weather prevailed over southern Manitoba in April with warm and dry conditions for most of the month. The big story was the dryness, with no measurable precipitation recorded between the 3rd and the 27th. A storm system at the end of the month brought over 25 mm of much needed rain to Winnipeg and southern Manitoba, as soil conditions were becoming very dry in the prolonged dry spell. The month actually ended up with slightly above average precipitation (36 mm vs 31 mm), but that statistic fails to represent the extreme dryness experienced in April. There were frequent sunny days with low humidity, making for ideal conditions for outdoor activities. Every day of the month was above normal except one which was just below. The sunny dry weather helped boost the monthly temperature average to 8.3C at the airport, over 4 degrees above the normal of +4.0C. This makes April 2010 the 9th mildest in Winnipeg since records began in 1872, just behind April 1906 at 8.4C. (April 1915 stands as Winnipeg's warmest April with a monthly mean of 9.5C.) The warm conditions this month were prevalent over much of the eastern Prairies, northern Plains and Great Lakes regions which enjoyed one of the warmest and driest Aprils on record. (see map)

Overall, an ideal spring month with some beneficial rain at the end..

Rain eases dry spell over southern Manitoba

A major spring storm finally brought significant rainfall to all of southern and central Manitoba over the past few days bringing an end to the extremely dry conditions that had persisted over the area for virtually the past 2 months. Generally 20 to 40 mm fell across most of Southern Manitoba over the past 48 hours with a band of 40 to 65 mm across west central areas of the province.

The following are some of the higher rainfall amounts received
From Environment Canada and Manitoba agriculture sites over the
Past 48 hours up to 9 AM this morning.

Location rainfall (mm)

Ethelbert............ 66.0
Roblin............... 60.3
Swan valley.......... 53.0
Dauphin............. 50.4
Swan River.......... 44.8
Wasagaming........... 44.4
Eriksdale............ 43.6
Ste. Rose........... 43.2
Grandview............. 41.8
Moosehorn............. 36.8
Steinbach............ 34.6
Teulon............... 33.8
Dugald............... 33.6
Selkirk............. 33.2
Elm Creek............ 32.0
Starbuck............. 30.2


Winnipeg (Forks)........ 28.6
Winnipeg airport.......... 26.9
Winnipeg (Charleswood)......... 27.4