Before forcing our way into our next weather school topic, here is a quick look at global temperatures for April. As we all know, April across central North America was not warm, but globally it was another very warm month. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, this April came in tied with April 2016
Weather school: Continuing our look at wind
Anything flowing over the Earth deflects off a straight path due to the planet’s rotation
Forecast: Milder with a chance of rain
Covering the period from May 13 to May 20
Last week’s weather outlook turned out to be remarkably accurate — way to go, weather models! The only piece that was slightly off was the Alberta low that was forecast to affect southern Manitoba last weekend and into the first part of this week. That low moved in a little quicker and mostly tracked through southern Saskatchewan. Now, on to this week’s outlook. Good news! I am
A return to cooler weather in May?
The CanSIPS model expects near- to above-average precipitation in May
Idon’t know about you, but being stuck at home working for a whole month actually made the month go by faster; seriously, it’s already May! That means it’s time for our look back at last month’s weather and our look ahead to see what the weather prognosticators say for the rest of May and June.
Forecast: Cool with a chance of rain, even snow
Covering the period from May 6 to May 13
Well, as it is starting to look and feel a little more like spring out there, I wish the latest forecast was as rosy looking as the last. During the last forecast period we saw warm air work in as expected, and several areas saw their first 20 C day of the year. The strong
Weather school: Gravity + pressure + Coriolis + friction = wind
Even within weather systems, there’s no getting away from the force of friction
As most students are struggling coming to terms with learning online, you readers are becoming experts. Last week in weather school we discussed the heating difference between land and water and were tying that into the overall energy balance of our planet. This energy balance, or rather, lack of balance, is what drives pretty much
Forecast: Spring weather appears to have sprung
Covering the period from April 29 to May 6
If you haven’t been following my forecasts over the last several months you might not know that for some time now, my forecast deadline changed from three days before the paper is published, to six days. While three extra days ahead of time might not sound like a lot, it is. After reviewing the forecasts
Weather school: How Earth manages its energy input
How land and water are arranged on Earth greatly affect its weather
In our last weather class, we were looking at Earth’s greenhouse effect and how it keeps the planet warm enough for life as we know it to exist. That was a part of our general look at Earth’s energy balance. With that in mind, this week’s lesson looks at the difference between land and water and how they “manage” the
Forecast: Is a big warm-up in the weather coming next week?
Covering the period from April 22 to April 29
A little bit of good news for those of you who are tired of the cold weather: The models are finally showing some summer-like or at least spring-like temperatures moving in, but — oh, you knew that there was going to be a “but”! After a mild start to the week, the weather models show
Weather school: Why does it get warm?
A greenhouse is an inexact metaphor for how Earth absorbs and emits energy
Last time in weather school we looked at how heat moves around by examining conduction, convection, advection and latent heat transfer. This week in our weather lesson we’ll start to explore the Earth’s energy balance, or what’s often referred to as our energy budget. Before we can dive into that topic, however, we must first
Forecast: Weather stuck in a cold pattern
Covering the period from April 15 to April 22
We’ll begin this forecast with the same words I used in the last forecast. For those of us who are stuck working from home and practising social distancing, wishing we’d see some nice warm weather, I’m afraid we’re out of luck for this forecast period. The weather models have been in very good agreement that