Colleen Bready's forecast: A warm and windy Wednesday

It is a warm and windy Wednesday in Winnipeg and for that matter, across the rest of southern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario, too.

High pressure at upper and surface levels will keep the sun shining and the winds gusting. Expect strong, sustained and gusting winds from the south that will continue tonight, and grow even stronger by Thursday afternoon.

Those winds are helping to usher in a warm air mass that will send temperatures soaring today well above normal for mid-October in southern Manitoba.

Daytime highs in the southwest could reach 19 C or 20 C, while the southeast will see temperatures rise into the mid-teens.

Winnipeg is forecast to reach 15 C this afternoon - well above the normal high for this time of year of 10 C.

By Thursday, the city is forecast to reach 20 C. That won’t come close to breaking a high temperature record, but it is still exceptionally warm for the middle of October.

As for northern regions this afternoon, most major centres will reach low double-digit highs as clouds roll in.

Meanwhile, a low developing over Alberta will begin to move east. Before it makes it this far, it will spread showers ahead of it into parts of northern Manitoba tonight and on Thursday.

Back in the south, unseasonably warm temperatures will continue into early next week.