Prairie snow & cold

It has been a challenging forecast week as it can be at this time of the year. It remains quite warm over the southern US while mid-winter arctic cold is surging south into the prairies and northern plains states. Anytime that happens the weather becomes interesting and challenging. The difference of a few hundred miles in the trajectory of a storm system can be the difference between the warm side or cold side of the storm.

So lets wrap up this last storm that moved across our region and is now in Atlantic Canada. it dropped about 30mm of rain in Montreal with the lowest pressure recorded of 991mb, so a decent storm but not the worst by any measure. The winds became quite strong on the backside of the system late last night with gusts over 60km/h around the city. Today we are expecting a few sunny breaks and steady, cool temperatures around 4C. It will remain breezy from the west at 30-50km/h. Tonight clear skies and cold with overnight lows around -3C. Friday will start off sunny but then an Alberta Clipper will bring a little wet snow or showers, with some gusty winds by evening. After a fair but chilly day Saturday, the same will happen again Sunday before a warmer southern system brings showers and mild temperatures to start next week. There remains the possibility of colder weather and significant snow by weeks end next week but that is far away at this time.

Shifting to the west, another blast of cold air is producing widespread snow this morning from Calgary to Winnipeg. A narrow band of 10-15cm is likely along the Trans Canada corridor with gusty winds and poor visibility. The cold air will deepen tonight with temperatures dropping to -20C and wind chills as cold as -25C in Calgary and Edmonton. That cold will spread as far east as northwest Ontario, but that is it for the time being.


It took many residents of Calgary hours to get to and from work yesterday as winter takes hold of the southern Rockies and Prairies. CTV.ca