Local meteorologist says we should expect "biggest snowfall of the winter so far"

With a low-pressure system stalled out over the Southeast, a local meteorologist says we can expect around 15 centimetres of snow. 

Scott Kehler from Weatherlogics says the main low-pressure system is down in the midwestern United States, and we are experiencing is what is known as an inverted trough. 

“What you could think of the trough as being is an elongation of the system that stretches up back into Manitoba. The reason I mentioned this is because when we have one of these inverted troughs over Manitoba, oftentimes it gives us more snow than we were expecting and usually these troughs will stall out and allow the snowfall to remain more stationary than it otherwise would be.” 

Kehler says this will likely be the bring the Southeast "its biggest snowfall of the winter so far". He notes it will come down over a lengthy period of time.  

“There will be bursts of heavy snow at times, but it's going to be more of a steady, light-to-moderate snow, extending all the way through Wednesday and then ending later on Thursday. It's going to be the duration of the event that really allows it to pile up.” 

When this system finally leaves southern Manitoba, Kehler says it is going to get a lot colder. 

“We're going to see a lot of really cold air coming down into Manitoba. The polar vortex has returned and it's dumping in Arctic air mass across the prairies, this is obviously going to bring very cold temperatures and extreme wind chill values as well.” 

Kehler warns, road conditions could be less than ideal as we head into the weekend.  

“When you get a snow event followed by extreme cold, usually you end up with pretty bad road conditions because that snow tends to get compacted and almost welded onto the road surface. So, I would anticipate that any roads that aren't cleared are going to be pretty slick over the weekend.” 

According to Kehler, the heart of the cold weather will rest in Alberta and Saskatchewan where readings will consistently be in the minus 30s. He notes in Manitoba, we will occasionally see overnight lows in the minus 30s but generally, we will stay in the minus 20s.  

He adds “Unfortunately, the winds are going to be pretty strong most days and so even though our temperatures aren't quite as cold as our friends to the West, it's going to feel really cold because of the wind chill factor.”