The secrets behind making a long-range forecast for winter

With winter just around the corner the various weather-forecasting companies and organizations are starting to come out with their winter forecasts. I will do a complete examination of all the different forecasts in next week’s article, as not all the forecasts are available yet. For this week I thought I would take some time to



Dry to December, then Alberta Clippers: AccuWeather

AccuWeather.com forecasts that following the third-warmest winter on record in Canada last year, snow and cold will make a comeback across much of the nation this winter. In a forecast issued Oct. 17, the U.S.-based firm said slightly colder-than-normal weather with near-normal snow is predicted for most of the Prairie region, which was the warmest

Early snow doesn’t equal snowy winter

It seemed to catch pretty much everyone by surprise, including yours truly. What looked to be an innocent area of low pressure, expected to stay well to the southeast of Manitoba late last week, ended up bringing the first taste of winter to much of eastern and south-central Manitoba. Most of southeastern Manitoba saw a


Westerly winds and high pressure dominate

When it comes to weather and weather forecasting you’ve got to love and hate this time of year. Both spring and fall are the transition periods between our two main seasons, winter and summer. In simple terms, it’s a time of battle between these two seasons. This can make for some interesting weather and can



Cool and cloudy Thanksgiving

See what happens when you pat yourself on the back? Mother Nature tends to put you right back in your place! Last week it looked as though the ridge of high pressure forecasted to track across Manitoba would weaken. Well, the ridge did track across our region, but remained very strong, and instead of seeing

Record low to record highs

Sometimes the weather actually does behave just like the “textbook” says it should — and that’s what we saw late last week and into last weekend. After we discussed “Indian summer” we saw record-cold overnight lows turn into record-warm daytime highs! The warm temperatures at the end of the month made September 2012 the 16th


Drought area widens in U.S., producers are frustrated

More than 65 per cent of the contiguous United States was under at least “moderate” drought as of Sept. 25, up from 64.82 per cent a week earlier, according to the Drought Monitor, a weekly compilation of data gathered by federal and academic scientists. The portion of the United States under “exceptional” drought — the

Frost hits most of the Prairies

Interestingly enough, it was about this time last year that I was in the process of writing a very similar article to what I’m writing now. The eastern Prairies have seen a fairly warm fall so far this year, with average temperatures during the first two weeks of September around 2 C above the long-term