Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Snow possible by weekend over southern MB

A strong storm system moving into the Central US plains this week is poised to bring a large area of rain and wet snow to the Northern Plains, with some snow likely working its way into southern Manitoba Friday into Saturday. The bulk of precipitation is expected to fall over the southern Dakotas into the northern Mississippi Valley where totals of 50 mm or more are possible, but a band of rain and wet snow is forecast to spread northward into southern Manitoba during Friday, likely changing to snow Friday night into Saturday even across the Red River valley. Much of the snow should melt initially, however some accumulations are possible especially over higher terrain. Like it or not, winter ain't done with us yet.

20 comments:

  1. Accuweather predicts a second storm forming in the plains early next week, almost identical track towards the Great Lakes. Could be a soggy cool week ahead.

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  2. Calgary getting hammered this morning with 18 cm of snow in the past 6 hours!

    Looks like we'll be seeing some of the white stuff ourselves tomorrow with wet snow developing in the afternoon giving 2-4 cm through the evening, possible 5 cm or more over western RRV/higher elevations.

    Probably not a good time to remind people we hit 22C a year ago today.. the first 20C of the season :)

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Great article this morning (and series) in the Winnipeg Free Press
    We are still only one major rainstorm away from ???..In 1950 the crest passed in April (so they thought) until 90 mm of precipitation in the last few days of April and first 9 days of May proved disastrous for a Mid May Flood. Can it happen again.. you bet. In 2010 the last 2 days of April and first 4 days of May produced 62 mm of Rain .
    5 of our last 6 major Wpg floods have been underestimated with disastrous results 79, 96, 97, 99, 09.
    Preparation for a major flood must begin months in advance. Grand Forks learned this from its 97 catastrophe. Manitoba appears to have finally adopted this practice and should be commended Thankfully, we hope, it appears to be enough. My last rant on this subject here.

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  5. Agreed Jim. I was surprised by the mayor of Ritchot's comments that the province was overreacting to this year's situation. Being prepared for the worst case was a pretty good strategy given this year's potential. And as you point out.. it ain't over..

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  6. Alright!
    The last few storms that Environment Canada said would produce around 5 cm of snow here in Winnipeg produced nothing, due to the temperature being to warm!!!

    Will tomorrow be a repeat situation??? I have a feeling so....

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  7. With a record number of roads closed throughout the province, and the crest still to come...It's a no brainer to prepare for the worst, one major storm could be the tipping point.

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  8. In Grand Forks, Fargo etc The Weather Channel web site TWC.com expects very little rain or snow for the next 10 days (today only). TWN expects precip. 9 or 10 of the next 14 days, 11 for Thief River Falls, 10 for Fargo, 9 for Brandon, and 6 for Winnipeg.

    Interesting??

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  9. Noon Apr 14th the Grand Forks Riverside Obelisk and the reading on the USGS web site show a maximum of 49.93ft (2009 crest was 49.33)at 1030 FGF River graphic site shows a max of 49.65.

    I wonder if this has to do with them shutting down the server today for NWS fgf??

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  10. Snowing steadily to our south this morning with Grand Forks getting heavy snow at times.. ground is white now with more to come. Snow is creeping north and has just started in Grafton and will be heading north towards the Cdn border within the next couple of hours. Snow will continue to spread north this afternoon however, easterly flow of very dry air in low levels (sfc RH = 35%) will delay onset of precipitation over Winnipeg/eastern MB until late afternoon. Temperatures will likely climb to +4 or +5C by then so precip could start as a mix of rain and wet snow before it changes over to snow this evening, with a couple cm of slushy accumulation still possible for us.

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  11. Merry Christmas everyone!!!!
    Don't you just love Winter-peg????

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  12. Isn't it just lovely though? =) It won't be here long anyway.. :P

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  13. Over 7 inches of snow at my house in East Grand Forks MN

    Reports indicate water flowing into Devils Lake at rates never measured...so surely DVL will get up toward 1455 this summer. Bad situation all around...state did approve an east end outlet to be built which would provide a controlled release (hopefully) if/when DVL overspills into the Sheyenne. DVL area got 8+ inches today (Fri).

    NWS FGF website issues was region-nationwide with all NWS sites. A new server was installed at national headquarters and took way longer than expected.

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  14. 6 cm of snow at my place.. a winter wonderland out there. Nice to look at .. but I'd rather be seeing trees covered in buds in mid April, not snow :)

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  15. About 6cm of snow in Steinbach as well. Liquid equivalent was 7.6mm, making the ratio 8:1.

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  16. An absolute postcard day at St vital Park at 5-7am.

    Total 50 to 75mm for the Minnesota side of the RRV this week!!

    Dan, will they complete an outlet at Devils Lake before it spills over naturally, or will they increase the height of the Levee as the down stream flows and Lakes are at record levels??

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  17. Snowing beautifully in the north of the city right now. Huge lovely flakes. :) Wasn't expecting that!

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  18. Jim

    The idea at the moment is to possibly create an east end control structure in the event that it reaches 1458 ft that it will spill over into the Sheyenne in a controlled manner...instead of a rush.

    We all know lots of issues to resolve....

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  19. These snow showers are losing our interest.
    When will we see that first decent >20 golf day?

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  20. curiousgal..

    No hint of a major warmup anytime soon. Looks like we climb to "normal" by the weekend with temps in the low teens.. but still no signs of a major change to an above normal pattern. We're still stuck in a La Nina type pattern with a strong storm track through the northern plains into the Great Lakes which is giving waves of precipitation every few days through there, while we remain in the drier but cooler air to the north. It's possible we may go the whole month without seeing our temps rise to the 20C mark (last year, we hit 20c 8 times in April)

    Normal high temperatures for Winnipeg rise to 15C by the end of April and 20C by May 20th so the trend is up.. but it may be a while getting there. I'd love to see a major flip to above normal in May, but I don't see that happening right now. Until then, take advantage of those sunny normal days when we get them!

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