Semi-permanent highs and lows

By the time you read this article it will already be February and you will probably be expecting the usual monthly weather summary and looking forward to seeing what the long-range forecasts call for in the next month. Unfortunately, because I write these articles in advance to meet publishing deadlines, the long-range outlook will have

What’s Up With All The Rain?

How does the saying/ song go? “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.” I think for a lot of people across at least the southern third of the Prairies, “another day” could be a month from now. Farther north, conditions are almost the exact opposite. Months of dry weather have left things extremely dry.


Storm Warning

MOVE FAST:Tornadoes like this one can travel in excess of speeds of 100 km per hour. Altona residents knew why a siren in town wailed for four minutes straight on a calm mid-afternoon May 18. It was a test of their community emergency warning siren, a specially installed system to alert residents in case of

Long Waves And Blocking Patterns

If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.” This is probably one of the most used and often true statements made about the weather in our part of the world. We live in the zone that stretches right around the globe, where warm air moving northward battles it out with cold air surging


Time To Think About Severe Weather

Last issue we began our look into severe weather and ended our discussion by introducing tornadoes. Over the last week there have been several outbreaks of severe weather over central and eastern parts of the U.S., with dozens of tornadoes reported and nearly 50 people killed. While this is still well to our south, it

Wind Turbines Might Improve Crop Performance

Wind turbines in farm fields may be doing more than churning out electricity, researchers with an Ames, Iowa laboratory associated with the U.S. energy department report. The giant turbine blades that generate renewable energy might also help crops stay cooler and drier, help them fend off fungal infestations and improve their ability to extract growth-enhancing


Forecast – for Jan. 6, 2011

Cold and high pressure won out over most of agricultural Manitoba last week which kept the series of snowstorms mostly to our south with only the extreme southern and eastern parts of agricultural Manitoba seeing any significant snow. During this forecast period it looks like cold high pressure will dominate again, bringing what can only

Taking A Look At La Niña – for Sep. 16, 2010

As summer comes to an end the most common question I have received is about what we should expect the coming winter to be like. Long-range forecasting is tough at the best of times, and most forecasts beyond 30 days are usually not more statistically correct than simply doing a coin toss, but – there


Issued: Monday, June 7, 2010 Covering: June 9 –June 16

The active weather pattern that seems to be bringing more clouds than sun and plenty of chances for rain looks like it will continue at least for another week, but there are some signs that the pattern might be changing. Currently we see a very strong jet stream coming in off the Pacific and zooming

Awesome Thunderstorms

The Weather Vane is prepared by Daniel Bezte, a teacher by profession with a BA (Hon.) in geography, specializing in climatology, from the University of Winnipeg. Daniel has taught university-level classes in climate and weather and currently operates a computerized weather station at his home near Birds Hill Park, on 10 acres he plans to