As Special Weather Statements continue across the southern half of the province, round two of snowfall will begin this morning from a Colorado low which continues to impact the region. After 5 to 10cms yesterday, an additional 10 to 15cms is possible Thursday through Friday morning.
"The Red River Valley, and regions along the Manitoba escarpment, are expected to see the highest totals from this latest round, with the southwestern corner of the province on the lower end of projections for the next 24-hours," said CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner Thursday morning. "There have been a lot of unique things about this storm, and that will continue today as we see the snow build in from the east to west. As this low continues to be impeded to move off due to blocking high pressure, it's counter-clockwise rotation will 'send back', if you will, today's precipitation. The low is currently centred over Minnesota and Wisconsin, so it has made some progress eastward, but not enough for us to avoid impacts again today."
For the latest Road Report and Cancellation information, click here.
He noted the low continues to tap into very moist air all the way from the Gulf of Mexico, and that has basically recharged the system's snowmaking machine, giving it the ability to dump as much, and possibly even more snow, than the first round Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon.
"As we've been saying all week, this will be a multi-day storm, and when we look back on the extent of what took place, Thursday afternoon into Friday may end up having the worst conditions of this stretch," Sumner added. "After several days of relatively calm conditions, strong northwesterly winds will develop before noon today, gusting to 60 km/h. Combined with the expected falling snow, reduced visibility will be added to the mix of already snow packed, as well as snow and ice covered highways."
Travel conditions will deteriorate throughout Thursday, and Sumner stressed, very poor visibility could be possible as the evening hours approach, and the heavy snow continues.
"Wednesday's driving conditions were less than ideal, that's for sure, but for the most part visibility wasn't a concern, that's all about to change," he added. "Depending on what snowfall rates look like as we get later in the day, near zero visibility could be possible in open areas."
A few more centimeters of snow are expected Friday, with gusty conditions continuing, meaning more blowing snow and reduced visibility. As the system finally moves out of our forecast area, conditions will begin to improve late Friday night into Saturday, with much colder temperatures on the way as an Arctic air-mass arrives for the weekend and into next week.
"The forecast models are showing this low will finally be out of our region by the latter half of Saturday, but in behind it awaits a deep trough in the jet stream, and a very large dose of bitterly cold air," he said. "Highs by Monday could be struggling to reach -20, and my mid next week, when the coldest temperatures are expected to arrive, we could be looking at highs between -23 and -26."
Average daytime highs for this time of year are -10, with overnight lows around -19.