If you like your Summer-time weather hot and humid, then the weekend forecast will be checking all the boxes for you.
"A strong ridge of high pressure has been building over the Prairies the last several days, and that's allowing a hot and muggy airmass to move northward out the U.S. in time for the weekend," said CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "We've felt a little bit of that heat and humidity this week, but it really arrives in our region Friday through Sunday."
Just how sticky will it get? Read on below to find out.
Meanwhile, showers and non-severe thunderstorm activity moved through Southern Manitoba Thursday morning into the early afternoon, and that led to accumulating rainfall at some locations, but not much.
"We also saw a couple isolated thunderstorm cells break through the cap yesterday evening, with one cell in particular prompting Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in the Brandon region, southeast toward Killarney," he noted. "The cap is a layer of warm air aloft which prevents convective activity from developing, so when we say storms were able to break through the cap, we're saying the parcels of air which ultimately developed into that storm were able to rise above that warm layer and organize into a thunderstorm."
The Brandon airport received 36.2mm of rain Thursday, with Souris just shy of 20mm and Wawanesa around 14mm.
The following rainfall totals are for Thursday, July 14th and are courtesy PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers, Environment Canada and the Manitoba Ag Weather Network:
Winkler (south of city) - 3.9mm
Morden/Altona (rural) - 3.2mm
Altona (in town)/Morris - 3mm
Elm Creek - 2.9mm
Gretna - 2.8mm
Pilot Mound - 2.5mm
Clearwater/Kane - 2.4mm
Carman - 2.2mm
Dominion city - 1.4mm
25mm = 1 inch
"Looking ahead to the next three or four days, we'll be nearing or reaching the low 30s Friday through Monday, with the humidity cranked up to uncomfortable Friday through Monday," said Sumner. "30 to 34 is the range we'll be in, but with the humidity factored in, it will feel like the upper 30s, nearing 40 at times. I expect we may see Heat Warnings issued for parts of the region at some point."
Even with that area of high pressure in place, Sumner noted all that heat and humidity, coupled with a few minor disturbances moving through the area, may lead to some shower and thunderstorm activity over the weekend.
"A trough of low pressure moving through Southern Manitoba overnight into Saturday morning may kick off a shower or two, and as instability builds throughout the day, with all the energy in the atmosphere from the heat and humidity, we could see a thunderstorm in the late afternoon," he added. "The next chance for wider spread precipitation, and potentially severe thunderstorm activity, is appearing to be Monday afternoon and evening into Tuesday. An area of low pressure is showing up in the forecast models which could provide a strong trigger for development, so we'll keep an eye on that."