Weather Email Bag

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Avg. 10.2 9.9 10.7 12.1 12.3 9.1 7.9 8.3 8.5 10.2 10.9 10.4 10.0 Average monthly wind speeds (km/h) The Weather Vane is prepared by Daniel Bezte, a teacher by profession with a B. A. (Hon.) in geography, specializing in climatology, from the

El Niño Rises, Winter To Get Milder

The current winter deep freeze on the Prairies could soon turn balmy because of El Nińo, according to a Canadian Wheat Board weather analyst. A rising El Nińo phenomenon – one of the strongest ever – could bring warmer winter weather to Western Canada, possibly followed by below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation in spring, said


Cold And Warm Water Affects Our Weather

Before I dive back into our discussion about El Nińo, did anyone really think we would get through this winter without seeing regular good old-fashioned cold weather? I think we all knew that the amazing period of mild weather would eventually come to an end, but you know, I secretly think there are a lot

November A Sign Of The Winter To Come?

It seems like we’re seeing October weather in November this year. Recordwarm temperatures were recorded at a number of stations across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta last week, and overall for the month we have a chance of breaking another monthly record for warmth. Is it remuneration for all the cold weather we had to endure


Continuing Our Look At Thunderstorms

In the last issue, we started talking about thunderstorms and I was forced to end the article in what you might call a “cliff hanger.” We discussed how we need a strong difference in temperature vertically in the atmosphere, with cold air located over top of warm air. Then I went on to say that

Conflicting Areas Of Wind

At the end of our last weather school article I hoped that we would see an early strengthening of the subtropical high which would then hopefully bring a warm and early start to spring. Instead we saw what our part of the world is famous for, big intense areas of low pressure. This week in


Most Of The World Has Predictable Weather

Our little break from weather school seems to have stretched out for over a month now. Well, Reading Week (or should I say “Month?”) is over and it’s time to get back to work! In our last lesson we continued our look at atmospheric circulation, and in particular, we built upon our general model of

General atmospheric circulation

After the last couple of weather school lessons on wind, we now have a basic understanding of what drives our winds. With this knowledge we are now ready to take this information and start piecing together the bigger picture of global winds, or what is referred to as general atmospheric circulation. We now know that


Gravity, pressure, Coriolis, friction = wind

The bigger the difference between areas of high and low pressure, the faster the air will move between them. Most public schools get a couple of weeks off over Christmas and some private schools will give three weeks, but here at Weather School we’re so nice that we give over six weeks of holidays from

Cold facts about wind chill

As we slowly move toward the heart of winter, I felt it was a good time to take a quick look at wind chill. When we indicate the temperature outside, we are talking about the actual temperature of the air, but depending on the conditions, this may or may not be a true indication of