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The scene outside Golden West studios in Winkler just before noon Thursday
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Parts of the Pembina Valley have been receiving a relatively unexpected shot of snow Thursday. The initial forecast for the day had been for a few flurries, but Environment Canada updated what was to be expected around 9 a.m., indicating several centimeters of flaky white stuff could fall.

"A trough of low pressure extending northward off a low pressure system in the United States is causing the instability leading to today's wintry scene," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "Within the overall system, which is moving northwest to southeast through Southern Manitoba, there are pockets of more intense snowfall."

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Sumner noted we should think of those pockets like the embedded thunderstorms we sometimes see in large scale rain producing systems in the Spring and Summer.

"If you are underneath one of those, you will see significantly more rainfall than your neighbour, but it's highly localized," he said. "We're seeing that Thursday with some of these snow-bursts dropping several centimeters in a very short period of time in the Morden, Winkler and Altona areas."

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Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, Sumner is keeping an eye on a fast moving clipper-like system moving southward out of the Yukon and Northwest Territories and crossing through Manitoba.

"It doesn’t look like it will pack much precipitation, but will bring a small chance of showers of flurries throughout the day Friday," he said. "The big story will be gusty winds picking up fairly quickly tomorrow morning, and gusting up to 60km/h by early afternoon. The windiest conditions will be in the Red River Valley and Southeastern Manitoba, but it will still be pretty breezy in the southwest."

Ahead of the low’s arrival, warm air will be pulled into the region, pushing highs into the 5 to 7 range.

"Behind that system cooler air from the north flow moves in, and a trough in the Jet Stream develops over our area," explained Sumner. "That will push daytime highs below freezing for Saturday and Sunday, between -2 and -6, which is several degrees cooler than normal, with zero where we should be."

Looking at the long range, seasonal conditions are expected for much of next week.

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