Reading Time: 3 minutes The weather models seem to be in good agreement for this forecast period, with no strong storm systems expected to impact the Prairies, making for a fairly high-confidence forecast. This forecast period will start off with a generally west to southwesterly flow across the Prairies. A broad but weak area of low pressure is expected […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Summer trying to hang on
Issued Sept. 6, covering Sept. 6 to 13

Prairie Forecast: Mostly sunny and warm
Issued Aug. 30, covering Aug. 30 to Sept. 6
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s a straightforward forecast for this period as the general weather pattern looks to be pretty quiet. It starts with a large area of high pressure centred over the Great Lakes with a weak area of low pressure over Alberta. The Great Lakes high will put sunny skies and warm temperatures over much of Manitoba […] Read more

Prairie forecast: unsettled to start then clearing and warmer
Issued Aug. 23, covering Aug. 23 to 30
Reading Time: 3 minutes Once again, the weather models are in good agreement so confidence in this forecast is fairly high. The only possible issue is that the different weather systems are rather weak which means timing of the systems can change easily. This forecast period starts off with two weak areas of low pressure, one over southern Manitoba, […] Read more

Prairie Forecast Update: Southern areas may get Hilary’s leftovers
Issued Aug. 20, covering Aug. 20-23
Reading Time: < 1 minute An interesting weather pattern is currently in place across western North America with Tropical Storm Hilary taking an unusual northerly track as it comes in off the Pacific Ocean south of California. Tropical storms or hurricanes in that region normally do one of two things: they either recurve back out into the Pacific, or move […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Upper ridge to bring the heat
Issued Aug. 16, covering Aug. 16-23
Reading Time: 3 minutes After going through a couple of weeks of tough forecasting, with little agreement among the weather models, this forecast period is looking a little more stable with the two main weather models for our region in basic agreement. We start off this forecast with a low over Manitoba that is quickly moving east. To the […] Read more

Prairie Forecast Update: Low to chug through mid-week
Issued Aug. 13, covering Aug. 13-16
Reading Time: < 1 minute The weather models seem to have come to an agreement on the area of low pressure forecasted to come in off the Pacific around mid-week. It looks like the energy from this system will quickly spin up an area of low pressure over north-central Alberta on Tuesday. The low will then quickly deepen and track […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Cooler and unsettled
Issued Aug. 9, covering Aug. 9 to 16
Reading Time: 3 minutes First off, I must apologize for not producing an update to the last forecast; I had the opportunity to do some backwoods camping, which meant I was off the grid for about five days. I’m back now, and from the weather model runs I’ve been able to check out, this forecast period is going to […] Read more

Prairie forecast: Warm-hot start then slow cooldown
Issued August 2, covering August 2 to 9
Reading Time: 3 minutes The weather models have been doing a good job with the overall weather picture over the last several weeks, despite a fairly unsettled, tough-to-figure-out weather pattern. In this next forecast period, it will again be tough to figure out some of the finer details as our region experiences weak highs, lows, and even the possibility […] Read more

Updated prairie forecast: unsettled start as sub-arctic high builds in
Issued July 26, covers July 26 to August 2
Reading Time: 4 minutes Update: A low tracking through central prairies is a little weaker than expected. This will result in less precipitation with showers, thundershowers, and storms being less widespread. Another issue is the smoke which can be difficult to predict. Areas with smoke we see cooler than expected daytime highs. An upper ridge that brought plenty of […] Read more

Prairie Forecast: Summer heat to build back in
Issued July 19, covering July 19 to 26
Reading Time: 2 minutes It looks like the overall weather pattern is going to undergo another shift. After nearly two weeks of unseasonably cool and unsettled weather over the eastern half of the Prairies, with near-average conditions over the west, it looks like more typically summer weather will move back in. The massive area of low pressure that spun […] Read more