Milder weather should win out

Issued: Monday, Jan. 17, 2015 – Covering: Jan. 21 – Jan. 28, 2015

The fragile weather pattern I talked about last week seems to have stabilized for the time being, which means more nice winter weather ahead. For this forecast period, we’re kind of caught between well-above-average temperatures to our west, thanks to a strong area of low pressure off the coast of Alaska combined with a ridge

Weather pleasant but a little fragile

Issued: Monday, Jan. 12, 2015 – Covering: Jan. 14 – Jan. 21, 2015

The start of this forecast period will see the last in a series of cold arctic highs push off to the east, which should result in milder conditions for the remainder of this forecast period and hopefully beyond. The best way to describe this forecast period is fragile. That is, while there are a couple


Some signs of milder weather returning

Issued: Monday, Jan. 5, 2015 – Covering: Jan. 8 – Jan. 15, 2015

I kind of blew it on last week’s forecast when I said we won’t see any significant snowfall. The arctic high that was forecast to drop southward over the weekend took just a little bit longer than expected to move. This allowed an Alberta clipper to take a much more northerly route, bringing a good

A northern low, just in time for Christmas

Issued: Monday, Dec. 15, 2014 – Covering: Dec. 17 – Dec. 24, 2014

The warm weather moved in as expected during the latter half of last week, but a strongly stratified atmosphere kept the really warm air from mixing down to the surface. Combine this with some low-level moisture and you end up with plenty of clouds and fog that helped to keep temperatures cooler than predicted. Temperatures


Storm systems staying away

Issued: Monday, Dec. 8, 2014 – Covering: Dec. 10 – Dec. 17, 2014

As usual for this time of the year, the general weather pattern played out as expected, but differences in the strength of the systems, along with the overall track, ended up impacting the longer-range forecast — at least a little bit. Arctic high pressure moved in as expected behind last weekend’s low and, as predicted,

Fairly quiet pattern developing

Issued: Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 – Covering: Dec. 3 – Dec. 10, 2014

Our last forecast started off right on track, but a stronger-than-expected storm system brought widespread measurable snow to southern and central Manitoba last Friday and Saturday and altered the general flow enough to change the rest of the forecast. Cold weather moved in behind this storm system, as high pressure dropped southeastward out of the


Weather pattern becoming more active

Issued: Monday, Nov. 24, 2014 – Covering: Nov. 26 – Dec. 3, 2014

Last week’s forecast didn’t turn out exactly as the weather models predicted. A large storm system moving across the central Prairies last weekend washed out as it moved into Manitoba, and was replaced by a second system that was forecast to move by us to our south. This system became much stronger than forecast and,

Gift ideas for the weather aficionado

Got a weather watcher among you? Here's a few items to consider for the holiday season

Once upon a time, when you wanted to find that unique weather gadget, the best website to check out was Ambient Weather based in the U.S. While it still stocks what I consider the best assortment of weather instruments, either high or low tech, it no longer ships internationally. So, unless you have some kind


Winter now settling in

Issued: Monday, Nov. 17, 2014 – Covering: Nov. 19 – Nov. 26, 2014

We’ve been in an interesting weather pattern over the last week or so, basically stuck between a large area of low pressure anchored over Hudson Bay and a ridge of high pressure to our west. This has placed us in a predominantly northerly flow, bringing well-below-average temperatures. The other interesting feature has been the occasional

Winter starts without the snow

Issued: Monday, Nov. 10, 2014 – Covering Nov. 12 to Nov. 19, 2014

If you remember back to last week’s forecast I pointed out the confidence level was not that high. Well, the overall pattern proved to be pretty correct but, as they say, the devil is in the details. The large low over Hudson Bay formed as expected and did drag a cold front across our region