I’ve been collecting winter weather folklore from readers and finding more by digging through the internet. Now I’ll list each of them, give a brief explanation of what it means, and see if there is any scientific evidence to back it up. The first one is probably the most recognized weather saying, and while I […] Read more
Tag Archives Weather Vane column — page 4
The surprising data about snowfall on the Prairies
It’s time to look at the probability of snow, or how often we should expect snowfall on any given day during the winter. I’ve done this before, but only for my home province of Manitoba. When it comes to precipitation, there are different periods in which to measure it. You can measure the amount of […] Read more
Tough to predict La Nina’s weather impact
Most of us know about El Nino, an unusual warming of the central and eastern parts of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This warming changes the general circulation of the atmosphere over the Pacific. The recent El Nino helped drive nearly two years of temperature records we just experienced. La Nina is the opposite. It means […] Read more
Most precipitation comes from cold clouds
There are several types of icy precipitation, but it all begins with the process that creates precipitation in cold clouds. In our part of the world, it is the predominant method of precipitation formation, summer or winter. We’ve all experienced freezing rain, which occurs when temperatures fall slightly below freezing. When you drop cold water […] Read more
Placement, height key to effective snow fences
Placement is the biggest mistake made when putting up a snow fence. The capacity of the fence and the average amount of blowing snow is important. To estimate the quantity of blowing snow expected in a typical winter, you need to determine the fetch or distance where wind can pick up and then redeposit snow. […] Read more
Numbers show less sea ice, longer frost-free periods
Let’s take a look at two signs of a warming world: the shrinking arctic sea ice and the lengthening frost-free period on the Prairies. I find it interesting that if arctic sea ice levels are not breaking records, it no longer seems to make it into the headlines. This year’s arctic sea ice minimum was […] Read more
September was warmer than last June
I now have all of September’s weather data from the main reporting stations across the Prairies and we can finally get to our monthly weather review. Let’s start with temperatures and the ranking of mean monthly temperatures across the Prairies. While I knew it was a warm month, some of these values surprised me. The […] Read more
A decent weather station is not that expensive
Here’s a look at what’s available in weather stations according to budget, based on the reviews of other users. This is the category where you find most of the Canadian Tire, Walmart or other big box store weather stations. One weather station seems to dominate, and that is La Crosse. There are several variations of […] Read more
Hotter atmosphere drives extreme rainfall
Three regions had extreme rainfall and flooding over the past few weeks across the globe. In northwest and north-central Africa, unusually persistent and heavy rains caused severe flooding in an area that is usually very dry. In fact, parts of the Sahara Desert and Sahel belt have seen significant rainfall. The second area of extreme […] Read more
On the hunt for a good weather station
My first weather station was a Davis Weather Monitor II and it served me well for a number of years. I then upgraded to a Davis Vantage Pro and had fairly good use out of it, but I did have to replace a few parts and get a battery issue fixed. These were good, reliable […] Read more
