Blowing snow, extreme wind chills blast across southern Manitoba

For anyone in southern Manitoba, the best bits of advice that can be given for this weekend are 'stay home' and 'bundle up'.

A fast-moving Alberta clipper storm is spreading dangerous winter conditions through southern parts of Manitoba today. Roughly 10 centimetres of snow fell, with a heavier band of snowfall stretching from Dauphin to Selkirk and Whiteshell National Park, but it's the strong winds and extreme cold that are the biggest concerns from this storm.

Driving conditions across southern Manitoba turned treacherous today as blowing snow reduced visibility down to dangerous levels. Some helpful examples posted to Twitter revealed not only how bad conditions truly were, but also offered some very good advice for anyone thinking about venturing out onto the roads.

Blowing snow conditions prompted weather warnings from Environment Canada throughout the day, however those warnings have been called off as the snow has moved off to the southeast. Road conditions reported by the government of Manitoba are still showing blowing and drifting snow, with reduced visibility and some road closures.

The frigid Arctic air being pulled down by this storm have caused temperatures across southern Manitoba to plummet down below -20 degrees Celsius today. The strong winds with the storm are causing wind chills down below -30 this afternoon, and as the temperatures continue to drop into this evening the wind chills will approach -40 or even lower. Under these extreme conditions, exposed skin can freeze in as little as 10 minutes, causing frostnip or more serious frostbite, and possibly hypothermia for anyone exposed to this weather for extended periods of time.

Wind chill warnings have been called from southeastern Saskatchewan, through southern Manitoba and into northwestern Ontario.

[ More Geekquinox: Weird Science Weekly: NASA satellite reveals our rainbow sun ]

The extreme cold will persist across the prairies in the wake of this storm, with even daytime highs still hovering around -30 degrees Celsius for the first half of the week.

Further to the east, warm winds blowing up from the south ahead of this storm are bringing a much-needed thaw to southern Ontario after last weekend's ice storm. However, this melting is causing some hazardous conditions as ice finally loosens from tree branches and roofs.

(Photo courtesy: The Canadian Press)

Geek out with the latest in science and weather.
Follow @ygeekquinox on Twitter!