These last few days have been very odd to have temperatures that are or near double digits on the plus side in mid January.
Nobody is upset that we have melting temperatures this time of year but there must be a reason for it. According to Stingray Weather Specialist Brandon Houck, it is all coming from Hawaii. “It was a perfect setup. We had a ‘Pineapple Express’, which originated out of Hawaii, and you get a flow of moisture moving towards British Columbia. That brings all the Pacific air over the Rocky Mountains and you have an upper ridge situated over California, that is also driving all this warm air in the Southern Prairies. We are getting rewarded with balmy temperatures as Manitoba is feeling like minus 30.”
When we see these types of temperatures in the winter, they are usually associated with a Chinook. Houck shares that this weather system has included a Chinook but it is more than that. “This (weather system) is pretty much an upper ridge of high pressure. We did have Chinook conditions throughout the week but what we are dealing with today is definitely not a Chinook, it is high pressure bringing warm air from the southern United States.”
Temperatures will dip Thursday due to a cold front according to Houck. “What we have is a ‘Saskatchewan Screamer’ that is going to be passing by bringing us a cold front. That will drop the temperatures from record high to above average for the rest of this week. Then, we will see another gradual cool down into next week seeing more seasonal temperatures.”
As for snow and moisture Houck doesn’t believe we will have much on the way. “The mountains have been getting pretty much all of the snow. It doesn’t look like we have anything too significant in the next week. Our snowiest month doesn’t arrive until March so we have a few more months to get all of our snow.”
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