This forecast period starts with a broad, cool area of high pressure stretching across the Prairie provinces. The cool air combined with strong mid-summer sunshine is leading to partly cloudy skies along with the odd shower or thundershower.
For this forecast period we are starting off with a large area of high pressure over Ontario and an equally large area of low pressure over the Yukon. The clockwise flow around the Ontario high, combined with the counterclockwise flow around the Yukon low, is creating a widespread southerly flow across the Prairies. This should lead to one more day of warm temperatures across the western Prairies and a couple more days over the eastern half.
For this forecast period we start, once again, with no strong systems impacting the Prairies. But, as we head into the weekend a strong area of low pressure is forecasted to develop over the western U.S. This low will impact our region over the weekend, but how and where is a little uncertain.
We start this forecast period off with an area of low pressure over far northern Manitoba that is slowly moving off into Hudson Bay. To the west, an area of low pressure is developing over the Yukon which is helping to develop a weak ridge of high pressure over Alberta. Over southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba weak high pressure is in place.
Looking at the big picture we start this forecast period with a generally zonal flow across the Prairies as Arctic high pressure slides across the far northern Prairies and weak low pressure moves by to the south. This will bring sunny to partly cloudy skies and near to slightly below-average temperatures.
We start off with high pressure dominating most of the Prairies. A large surface high is sitting over the north-central U.S. This is beginning to tap into more heat and moisture, which will allow for warmer daytime highs and nighttime lows as dewpoints creep up.
For this forecast period, it seems set to dry out and warm up. I suppose that's good for the areas that recently received significant rainfall and not so good for those regions dealing with fires.
We saw a strong ridge of high pressure build in last week, which brought daytime highs into the low thirties across parts of the eastern Prairies. Once the ridge collapsed, cooler air moved back in. Well, it looks like we can expect another cycle of building and collapsing ridges. Then, starting on the weekend, the weather pattern should become more energetic thanks to a strong trough of low pressure forecasted to develop off the West Coast.
Across the eastern Prairies, all eyes are on the breakdown of the western trough and the resulting ejection of the final area of low pressure. The weather models are still trying to get a handle on this feature.