How spring snowstorms on the Prairies stack up

The history of spring snowfalls

I promised to look at snow cover across the Prairies for the Feb. 29 issue of the Co-operator, but life and a cold bug got in the way. It can be tough to concentrate, especially when digging into numbers, when your head is aching and you can’t breathe through your nose. That article will have

Wild weather ride in January

Temperature records were shattered across the Prairies at the end of the month

If January was any indication of what weather will be like for the rest of 2024, it is going to be one wild year. What a month it was! It started off warm. Then winter showed up in full force, bringing record-breaking cold, especially over the western half of the Prairies. Luckily it didn’t last


What’s the ideal Christmas weather?

Will there be snow on the ground or a brown holiday?

Every few years I like to revisit the topic of perfect Christmas holiday weather. Each year that I have looked at this, December has started out warm and dry with little snow cover across large parts of the southern Prairies. And what do we see this year? A warm start to December with below average

A warm start to winter

Most models agree it will be warmer than usual, with some variations

It is time once again to look at last month’s weather and peer ahead to the latest long-range forecasts. Fall is now officially over and we are beginning the meteorological winter, so let’s see how the fall weather numbers added up. Alberta once again had a very warm month compared to the long-term average. The


A file photo of the aftermath of freezing rain in Montreal on April 6. (David Himbert photo/Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect)

Weather Network predicts mild winter, with caveats

Colder scenario expected for East

MarketsFarm — Strong El Niño conditions that have developed in the Pacific Ocean would typically lead to a milder winter across Canada — but other factors this year could challenge that outlook, according to the winter forecast from The Weather Network, released Wednesday. The winter forecast features a mild start to the season, with a

Otters need access to water to hunt. Tracks are usually not far from access points used to get under the ice.

Wildlife stories in the snow

Winter is one of the best times to get a peek at the habits of wild critters

In my early 20s, I had the privilege of tagging along with Cree trappers in northern Manitoba. It was part of my youthful dream to learn how to live off the land, and who better to learn from than the people and communities that had been doing it for millennia? When it came to hunting


The probabilities suggest that a snowfall event yielding at least 10 centimetres in the Winnipeg region will happen about twice per typical winter.

A deeper dive into winter snowfall amounts

Statistically, we see less than two centimetres about half the time when it snows

Often when we get October snow, I am asked how often we see big snowfall events. I talked a little bit about this last week but this week I will take a deeper dive into snowfall. During one of my university courses on water systems, we looked at stream flows and how to calculate the

A sea otter floats near the Columbia Glacier along Alaska’s southern gulf coast. (Chansak Joe/iStock/Getty Images)

Prairie Forecast: Nice, quiet early-winter weather

Issued Nov. 1, covering Nov. 1 to 8

Interesting weather pattern setting up across the Prairies during this forecast period. Well, maybe “interesting” isn’t the right word; “boring” might be a better one. What I mean by “interesting” is just how quickly we swung from a warm fall pattern to a cool winter pattern. Low temperatures across the Prairies over the last week


File photo of the produce section at a Canadian grocery store. (FatCamera/E+/Getty Images)

Canada retools inflation baskets with more focus on food, gas

Snowblowers and barbecues in, DVD players out

Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s national statistics agency on Tuesday revealed new weights for the basket of goods and services in its Consumer Price Index, giving more prominence to changes in the prices of food and gasoline. The reweighting, which Statistics Canada carries out every year, has historically had only a marginal impact on the

Weather: Winter tries to hang on

Forecast issued Apr. 14, 2023, covering the period from Apr. 19 to Apr. 26, 2023

Surprisingly for spring, last week’s forecast played out close to what the weather models predicted. The expected Colorado low late in the week developed as the models thought it would. It moved in earlier and moved out earlier and was not as strong as forecasted. It did intensify, but not until it was in northern Ontario, and that