Colleen Bready's Forecast: How long will the extreme cold last?

Extreme cold continues to hold its grip on much of Manitoba and northwestern Ontario on Thursday.

In Winnipeg, the hourly temperature recorded at Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) station at the airport at 6 a.m. was -32.4 C, the coldest hourly reading there in all of 2024, so far.

An arctic ridge of high pressure has weakened, but it will be our neighbours in Saskatchewan who will be the beneficiaries of more moderate conditions today.

Here in Manitoba, not so much. The tradeoff, though, is that the sun will shine again today on much of the province.

ECCC has continued its extreme cold warning today for Winnipeg, Brandon, and most of southern Manitoba and parts of northwestern Ontario.

Daytime highs will only reach the mid to upper minus 20s with wind chill values approaching -40. That will be followed by one more bitterly cold night. Overnight lows will drop into the low -30s with wind chills that will feel in the -40s.

ECCC has also issued an extreme cold warning in the northwest where wind chills will feel as cold as -45 today into Friday.

Some relief will start to arrive on Friday in Winnipeg and the rest south, but it will take until Saturday to really feel a noticeable warm-up.

Daytime highs across the south will jump to the mid-minus teens on Friday. That’s still below normal by several degrees, but it will bring an end to the extreme cold.

Tomorrow will be a windy day, but winds will come from the south. They will tap into milder air that will bring us a much more comfortable-feeling weekend.