The results of the actions of this butterfly are impossible to predict because the amount of detail we’d need to do so accurately is too massive to effectively gather.

Weather modification and chaos theory

We can’t say exactly what weather will do, so good luck forcing it to do what you want

I was asked some questions last week about weather modification. Can we do it? Is it happening? Has it been weaponized? Is this why we are seeing all this extreme weather? In this day and age, when conspiracy theories seem to spring up and run rampant, the timing of these questions could not be better.

Forecast: Mild and dry weather returns

Issued September 25, 2017: Covering the period from September 27 to October 4

Over the last week or so we saw our first period of unsettled wet weather in a long time. The forecasted system brought some late-season thunderstorms to several regions late last Friday. We then saw another area of light rainfall move through on Sunday. This second system was forecast to stay well to our south,


Forecast: Warm weather to build back in

Issued August 14, 2017: Covering the period from August 16 to August 23

Even though I had to create the forecast early last week I was still able to pull off a reasonably accurate one. I would love to take full credit for that, but sometimes you just get lucky. After all, I am just reading weather models and trying to pick which models are doing the best

Milder weather should win out

Issued: Monday, Jan. 17, 2015 – Covering: Jan. 21 – Jan. 28, 2015

The fragile weather pattern I talked about last week seems to have stabilized for the time being, which means more nice winter weather ahead. For this forecast period, we’re kind of caught between well-above-average temperatures to our west, thanks to a strong area of low pressure off the coast of Alaska combined with a ridge

Possible El Niño developing this summer

Any large-scale change in the state of the Pacific is bound to have an impact elsewhere

I received an email the other day asking about El Niño and what effect it might have on our part of the world, should one develop. For quite a while now the Pacific has been in a neutral El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase, but there is some mention of an El Niño event possibly


The ingredients of a tornado

After a fairly cool spring with few if any thunderstorms, summer has started to make headway into the Prairies over the last few weeks. In some years summers come and go with only the odd thundershower and maybe one big thunderstorm, but in other years every storm that comes along seems to bring severe weather.

Is the jet stream getting stuck more often?

It’s best to hope these ‘blocking patterns’ don’t become the norm This is one of those weeks when I’m just not sure what to write about, so I thought I’d discuss some ongoing weather research that just might help us understand how we could go from a record-warm March to a record-cold April in just

Less Arctic ice influencing our weather?

In the last issue I looked at possible trends in the amount of melting occurring during the winter across the Prairies. In this issue I’m going to look at another question that has repeatedly been asked of me, and I feel it kind of ties into the winter melting trends. This question has to do


What is causing our summer heat?

As summer slowly begins to wind down, with weather across the region being fairly uneventful, the question is, just what should I write about this week? We have looked back at the historic heat we’ve seen over the last year, we have gone into detail about the record-breaking heat over the central U.S., and we

Weather happenings around the world

Ithought I would take a break from our look at severe summer weather and take a little bit of time to hit on a few other weather stories that have been taking place locally and around the world. First of all, for us, comes the biggest weather story: what the heck is going on with