Record warmth the top story for 2012

Over the last few issues we’ve looked at the top weather stories from around the world in 2012. In this issue it’s time to zoom in on Canada and see what the top weather stories were this past year. Environment Canada creates a list of the top weather stories each year along with a list

One warm July across the province

As I write this article it is almost the end of the month, and even though I don’t have the final numbers yet, I’m pretty sure I can come pretty close based on the forecast for the last couple of days this month. So here we go with our monthly look back at the weather


Warm weather to continue

The first part of last week’s forecast played out pretty much as expected, but the second part of the forecast, well that was a bit of a bust! The upper area of low pressure did cross north-central Manitoba over the weekend, but it lost a fair bit of its energy as it did so. The

Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes

Since they can’t actually get inside to measure it, scientists aren’t completely sure what causes a tornado

We’ve seen a few thunderstorms over southern and central Manitoba so far this July, but most have not been very severe. That said, over the weekend, southwestern Manitoba had a tornado watch in effect and that reminded me that we need to finish our look at severe thunderstorms and in particular, tornadoes. The biggest question


Riding the edge of a heat wave

Last week’s forecast played out pretty much as expected, with the exception of a little more cloud and slightly cooler temperatures on Sunday and Monday, but after the dry weather and all the heat last week I think it was actually appreciated! It looks like the heat will be back on for most of this

A July heat wave is possible

Summer weather definitely arrived last week with plenty of heat, humidity and even a few thunderstorms. It looks like this pattern will continue for much of this forecast period. Fortunately, it looks like we may miss the extreme heat the U.S. is experiencing during this forecast period, but it still looks like it will be


Starting to understand tornadoes

This week we’ll continue our look at severe thunderstorms, and specifically, the most deadly part: tornadoes. What are tornadoes and how do they form? A classic definition of a tornado is a violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground, which may or may not be visible as a funnel

Pressure ridge may bring July heat wave

The weather models have been bouncing around over the last week, but over the last couple of days they seem to be coming into agreement on the forecast — and that forecast is for good old summer weather. The models show the upper ridge of high pressure, which brought plenty of sunshine and warming temperatures


Severe summer weather: Wind

With the return of summer-like heat last week we also saw the return of severe summer weather. Plenty of thunderstorms rumbled across the Prairies, bringing examples of all of the different types of severe weather we can expect to see. There was plenty of lightning, hail, some really strong winds, heavy rains and, last but

Thunderstorms and hail

I find it kind of interesting, and maybe a little weird, that in the last issue I indicated that this issue would be about thunderstorms and hail, and then during the last week areas around Winnipeg experienced thunderstorms with hail — I even had some at my place. I think this week I should end