Manitoba braces for extreme wind chills, blowing snow later today

The bitterly cold weather continues for the Prairies this morning, and while Alberta and Saskatchewan can look forward to conditions improving (even slightly) this afternoon, in Manitoba, it's setting up to get far worse.

As of this morning, temperatures in southern regions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are in the minus teens and wind chills are hovering around the -30 mark. This has been settling in as the 'normal' weather for this 2013/2014 winter season through the Prairies. Wind chill warnings show up at night, advising everyone of the coming risk of frostbite and hypothermia as they make their way out into the world the next morning, then they're called off again for the afternoon as conditions warm up enough that it becomes at least 'bearable' again. Then the whole cycle restarts once the sun goes down.

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Today is working out a little differently for residents of Manitoba, though. While temperatures and wind chills are cold enough this morning, an Arctic front sweeping down through the province around midday is bringing an extreme deep-freeze along with it. Temperatures are expected to plummet and wind gusts up to 80 kilometres per hour at times will produce wind chills down in the -40s across southern regions of the province. Meanwhile, in regions further north, wind chills are expected to plunge down to -50 to -55. These strong winds are also expected to create whiteout conditions due to blowing snow, with weather warnings advising of visibility being reduced down to around 1 kilometre over open areas.

While the winds are expected to die down sometime tonight, the frigid air certainly isn't going anywhere soon. Thursday morning temperatures are expected to be in the -30s Celsius in southern Manitoba, with even with the lighter winds, wind chill values are still likely to reach to around -45.

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Further to the west, things are warming up slightly in southern Saskatchewan, after they were dealing with this same kind of brutal cold on Monday and Tuesday morning, and southern Alberta is practically 'balmy' today, with temperatures actually expected to reach above zero today in places like Calgary and Lethbridge!

All that is being swept away Friday night, though. By Saturday morning, temperatures throughout Alberta will be dropping down to around -30 C again, and across the rest of the Prairies they'll be edging towards -40 C. For some areas, like in southern Saskatchewan, that will be the coldest they've seen on any morning so far this winter. At that level of extreme cold, the lightest breeze can push the wind chill down to around -50, raising a serious risk of hypothermia for anyone outside and freezing exposed skin in as little as five minutes.

(Photo courtesy: Canadian Press)

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