What Manitobans can expect for weather this December

Graham Avenue is pictured on Dec. 3, 2021 (Photo: Charles Lefebvre/CTV Winnipeg)

If you have been enjoying the mild weather in the past few months, enjoy it while you still can, as the temperature will be making a change shortly.

Dave Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said in a recent interview with CTV News Winnipeg that cold temperatures more in line with a traditional Winnipeg winter are set to arrive as soon as Monday.

“We’re going to see Monday temperatures that would be maybe 16 degrees colder than normal,” he said. “Instead of minus 7 (degrees Celsius), which is the normal high, it might be minus 23.”

Phillips said Environment Canada, and other forecasters, are predicting Western Canada will be colder than normal this year, saying it will be another La Nina year.

“It tends to produce more jet streams from Alaska and Yukon, so that cold air comes down, fills all the nooks and crannies and freezes you,” he said.

Phillips said despite the predicted cold, Manitoba could still see some mild days as the winter goes on.

“I think you’re not going to escape the cold, but it’s not going to be a hoary, long season like we had in the middle of February last year, when the polar vortex hit hard,” he said.

“My sense is that there will be a little bit of weather for everybody. There will be days where you wish you were somewhere else…but then there will be days when you get a January thaw, the temperatures are maybe a little bit above freezing, or it’s just sunshine and you’re not seeing any weather around.”

When it came to September, October and November, Winnipeg showed warmer than average temperatures in those three months. Phillips said the average temperature this past September was 16 degrees Celsius, while the normal average temperature for the month is 12.7 degrees. The average temperature this past October was 9 degrees, up from the normal average of 5 degrees. November was even slightly warmer than usual, with average temperatures of minus 3 degrees. Normally in November, Winnipeg sees average temperatures of minus 5 degrees.