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Quit gloating, dig out those winter boots

Experts predict early, cold winter

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 10/11/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Dig out those long johns and keep the Sorels handy.

The weather experts to the south say Manitoba can expect an early and very cold winter this year.

Meteorologists with AccuWeather.com say the beautiful fall weather is going to come to an abrupt end very soon.

"You will see snow before Halloween," Jack Boston, AccuWeather.com's expert senior meteorologist, said. "You got a slight shot (at snow) late this week but... by Halloween, you're going to see some accumulating snow."

Boston said that overall, our winter in southern Manitoba will be about two degrees Celsius below normal, with the worst of it happening in December and January.

On the plus side, Boston said we can expect less snowfall than normal.

All the cold weather will be courtesy of a La Niña winter, Boston said, which will bring in Arctic cold air across Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba from as far away as Siberia.

For the rest of the country, the forecast is one of the coldest winters in the past 20 years for Western Canada, major snowstorms for Ontario and Quebec and a drier than normal winter for Atlantic Canada.

Boston said we can expect some welcome warmer days in January, with daytime highs of -3 C or -2 C, but they'll be brief and a distant memory when the mercury falls down to -22 C for the daytime high.

Boston said the worst of the snowfall, however, will fall in the Dakotas, missing us completely.

And, Manitobans can take some pleasure knowing it will be even colder than normal to the west of us.

Senior meteorologist Brett Anderson said temperatures out west will be up to five degrees Celsius lower than normal, meaning temperatures will drop below zero in Vancouver and below about -20 C in Edmonton.

Vancouver will experience one of its coldest winters on record, Anderson said.

Winter will start slowly, and then in January and February, it's going to be fairly active, Anderson said.

That's when we're going see our significant snowfalls.

The reason for more snow and more cold? La Niña, a phenomenon that occurs when water temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean are below normal.

La Niña produces extreme cold across Western Canada during the winter while adding to snowfalls in Ontario and Quebec.

Water temperatures this year are pointing to a moderate-strength La Niña, Anderson said, which helps with the predictions.

This winter will see less snowfall in the Prairies, Anderson said, except in southwestern Alberta.

Because the Great Lakes are running warmer than normal, the areas around the lakes will have a greater amount of lake-effect snowfall, Anderson said.

-- Postmedia News, with files from Aldo Santin

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 11, 2011 A4

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