Sixth-coldest December on record

It doesn’t matter which way you look at it, December 2013 was downright cold! After an average November, most people were looking ahead to a nice December that for most of us would bring some snow and fairly mild temperatures — conditions perfect for getting out and enjoying winter. Well, December started off exactly as

Cold weather and a curvy jet stream

Over the first half of December the Northern Hemisphere has seen some fairly wild weather. Our part of the world has seen some record cold weather, whereas Alaska and Florida have seen record warmth. Over Europe and the Middle East there have been wild temperature swings and early-winter snows in places that rarely see snow.


A cold and snowy month ahead?

Another month has come and gone and 2013 is quickly coming to an end. While it is a little too soon to make a summary of this past year’s weather, it’s time to see how November’s numbers added up. November started off fairly nice, with daytime highs pushing the 10 C mark in the first

We ride the temperature roller-coaster

By the time you read this forecast, we’ve either just dodged a big winter storm to our south or are just starting to dig ourselves out of it! The weather models have been pretty consistent with bringing a strong, slow-moving storm system across the northern U.S. during the middle of this week. Whether this system


All I want for Christmas is a weather station

Each year as we start to get ready for Christmas, I like to do an article or two about different weather gadgets that the weather enthusiast you know might just like. As usual, I will look at different price points, but this year I think I’ll try to stick a little closer to home, by

What are the odds for big snowfalls?

As we’ve been learning over the years, certain weather-related questions sound simple enough, but when you actually start to look at the question, it becomes tougher to figure out. Take trying to figure out when winter actually begins: the tough part is how to define just what constitutes the start of winter. Should it be


Warm and dry or cold and snowy winter?

In the last issue I promised we would take a look at the long-range winter forecasts, but before we do that I have to take a moment to discuss Typhoon Haiyan, or rather, Super Typhoon Haiyan, that hit the Philippines last week. First of all, just for clarification, a typhoon is the same thing as

Warm and dry or cold and snowy November?

At the end of September we looked back at what was a pretty darned nice month! At the time I compared this September to the one in 2009, then hoped that we wouldn’t follow 2009 with a really cold October. Well, it turns out October 2013 wasn’t that cold, but it wasn’t that warm either.


A detailed look at the fifth IPCC report

Acouple of issues ago, I began to look at the latest release by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In that issue I looked at just what the report is, who creates it, and how it is put together and reviewed before being released. I then began to explore the first key pieces of

Lake-effect snows are often the first of the season

With parts of southern and central Manitoba seeing their first flakes of snow last weekend, I thought it would be a good time to begin a look at the topic of snow. The snow last weekend came thanks to the first Alberta Clipper of the year, which brought upwards of five cm of snow to