To say it was windy on Wednesday would be somewhat of an understatement, particularly in parts of Western Manitoba where gusts reached, and exceeded, 90 km/h.
"We had a couple of factors at play yesterday that led to the very strong winds," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "One, the pressure gradient was quite significant around the low pressure system that was slowly crossing the province into northwestern Ontario. That's the difference in pressure between that particular system and the other airmasses around it. Secondly, a fairly strong jet stream was over top the southern Prairies, and remains there today, and that just added to the gusts we experienced.
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Those peek gusts were very significant in some spots, most notably in Westman where a 92 km/h gust was recorded and Ninette and Pierson, and not far behind at 90 km/h near Killarney. Manitoba Hydro reported several power outages yesterday including in the Cypress River, Glenboro, Carberry and Emerson.
The following wind gust information is for Wednesday, June 5th and courtesy of the Manitoba Ag Weather Network and Environment Canada:
Ninette/Pierson - 92 km/h
Killarney - 90 km/h
Waskada - 89 km/h
Minnedosa - 88 km/h
Virden - 87 km/h
Eden - 86 km/h
Findlay/Minto - 85 km/h
Windygates/Boissevain - 83 km/h
Pilot Mound - 82 km/h
Clearwater - 79 km/h
Baldur - 78 km/h
Cartwright - 77 km/h
Wawanesa - 76 km/h
Reston/Sinclair - 75 km/h
Manitou - 74 km/h
Winkler (south of city)/Altona/Gretna - 67 km/h
Morris - 65 km/h
Emerson - 64 km/h
Morden (AAFC station) - 63 km/h
Looking ahead to the remainder of the week, and into the weekend, cloud cover spinning off that low will keep things grey on Thursday, with the northwesterly flow around it pushing much cooler air into the area. Highs Thursday will be in the 16 to 18 range, which is well below the 24 degrees we should be for a daytime high at this point in June.
"We're expecting some ridging to return to the atmosphere as we get into the weekend, along side surface high pressure, and that means sunnier and drier conditions looking likely Friday through Monday," said Sumner. "Temperatures over that stretch will be seasonal to slightly below, hovering between 19 and 24. There continues to be some disagreement in the long range forecast models regarding what we can expect coming out of the weekend and into next week. We are seeing signs of seasonal to above average temperatures, but for how long and just how warm, that's where the uncertainty is coming in."
As for rain chances, Sumner is looking at Monday night into Tuesday as a projected low pressure system moving through central Manitoba could bring showers to the area.