Colleen Bready's Forecast: Rain and cooler temperatures in Manitoba

Cool temperatures, rain, and wildfire smoke are the main weather features affecting Manitoba and northwestern Ontario on Thursday.

Much of this is driven by two areas of low pressure. A cold front associated with an upper low over northern Manitoba will slump southward today toward Ontario. As it does, it will likely trigger thunderstorms.

Rain is possible across all northern areas, but the chance of showers and thunderstorms is much higher in the northeast than in the northwest.

In the south, a surface low near the Minnesota border with the Dakotas is sending significant rainfall north of the international border today, mainly into the Red River Valley including Winnipeg.

The amount of rain expected to fall this afternoon and tonight across the region varies widely with anywhere from 10 to 50 mm possible. Winnipeg could get soaked with as much as 20-30 mm.

This low is expected to stall out, too. The tricky part is knowing exactly where. If it stalls far enough to the west, the western Red River Valley could potentially see as much as 50-75 mm of rainfall.

Areas further west will be affected, too. Brandon could get as much as 10-20 mm of rain.

The odds of thunderstorms are low here in the southeast today, but are much greater in the southwest into the Interlake. They are not expected to become severe, though.

As for wildfire smoke in the province, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has expanded air quality alerts to all north regions and west-central areas.

Smoke will continue to spread into southern Manitoba over the next couple of days and could move into Winnipeg by Friday morning.