Southern Manitoba to see unseasonably warm weather by mid-week, climatologist says

That winter storm that blanketed southern Manitoba with snow in late October may have been a little misleading.

Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips said the region is set to see even more unseasonably warm weather this week — in a season that has been full of high temperatures so far — with Wednesday expected to come in way above the average, potentially in the  7 C range.

“These temperatures are 14-15 degrees warmer than normal,” Phillips told 680 CJOB’s The Start.

“The average temperature, come middle of the week, should be a high of -8 C and a low of -17 C — not a temperature of 7 C or 6 C.”

Phillips said a typical December will see four days or so when the temperature rises above zero, but this year — although it’s only Dec. 4 — there have already been three.

In an average year, we’ll also have seen seven days below -20 C by the end of this week. So far this year, there have been absolutely none.

The warm weather, Phillips said, is a little shocking.

“To get a temperature which is above the freezing mark at any time during the day is a rarity.

If you look up those numbers for Winnipeg in December, there are no days when the temperature gets above the freezing mark, yet we’re going to see one, maybe two, he explained.

“Even when it cools off, towards say next weekend and early next week, … we see temperatures that are just seasonable.”

Phillips said that cold, northern air that we would usually see at this time of year just doesn’t seem to be present — and as a result, locations in the eastern Arctic and Nunavut are even seeing warmer temperatures than, say, Toronto.

“My sense is this is just the kind of the personality of what December is going to be.”

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