So far in January, we’ve experienced some nice warm days as well as extremely cold days.
Meteorologist Matt Grinter with the Weather Network says the overall temperatures are normal in January, but precipitation is another story with the lack of snow in the region.
“I think that's one of the big things, is the amount of precipitation in the Dauphin area and even all of southern Manitoba, has been relatively below normal. We've seen a lack of snow, there's been that little bit of freezing rain, but it's just that, winter's here with some of the colder temperatures, but not much in the way of precipitation.”
Grinter says the reason the weather has bounced back and forth from nice to extreme cold is a lack of a strong Arctic pattern locking in to bring the cold air down to the prairies.
“We've had more of that Pacific air mass, and that leads to parts of BC having a little bit more moisture, so a lot more rain and snow than normal as well. So that air mass has just translated in through the southern prairies, and that's given the warmer temperatures for the beginning and end of January.”
He says the lack of snow in the winter isn’t an indication of what will happen in the summer.
“It's the spring rain that we really keep an eye on for the farmers in the summer. But that's something that we'll just have to keep an eye on as we head through the rest of winter and into the first part of spring.”
The trend of temperatures bouncing back and forth will continue because as we head out of the weekend’s nice warm temperatures, we’re likely to experience colder days again.
