Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Your Weekend Weather

You know what it's like when you walk into your favourite watering hole, where the super friendly guy behind the bar treats you extra-special, maybe tosses in a free beer and some complimentary chicken wings, because you and your buddies go there all the time.

Then one day, you walk in and -- WHAT? -- your regular bartender is gone and they've hired a complete stranger to take his place, and nothing is like it used to be. It's not that the new guy is mean or anything; it's just that you're not special anymore because he treats you like everybody else.

Well, that's what our weather is going to be like this week. After two unseasonably special weeks where we set eight weather records and had three days in the 20s, we're heading back to normal.

My good buddy Dale Marciski from Environment Canada puts it this way: "It's like we got the upgrade to first class at the front of the plane for a little while and now they're sending us back to our regular seats."

What that means, Dale says, is a low-pressure system is coming up from the southwest and bringing cooler air, meaning a return to normal but it will feel below normal because, frankly, we have been above normal for an abnormal amount of time.

Today's outlook calls for a few clouds and a high of 15 C -- well above the normal high of 2 C at this time of year -- but that high will come in the morning and, by the end of the afternoon, it will be closer to 1 C.

On Sunday, the low will be a bracing -10 C and we'll be lucky to get above freezing with a forecast high of only 2 C. "It's tough to take after you've seen the other side of things," Dale said. "We'll warm up during the week, but there's no 20-degree days on the horizon." Some places, like Dauphin, could even see a touch of freezing rain turning to snow today.

On the upside, your chances of having fun this weekend are not being downgraded. You can stay warm all weekend amid the beauty of hundreds of exotic orchids at the Manitoba Orchid Society's annual show and sale at the Assiniboine Park Conservatory. Tickets are $7, with kids under 14 admitted free.

Or you grown-ups can feel the heat at the annual Taboo Naughty But Nice adult trade show today at Assiniboia Downs featuring stuff we don't normally mention in a family newspaper. Tickets are $10.

Speaking of swinging, you and your foursome can get a grip at the Winnipeg Golf Expo, which runs today and Sunday at Red River Exhibition Park. Tickets are $10. Then putt on over to The Forks today for the launch of the annual Festival of Fools featuring clowns, magicians, jugglers and more.

It looks like things are getting back to normal, Winnipeg, but that's OK, because the new guy behind the bar is starting to grow on me.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 24, 2012 A2

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