Moving snow drifts in southern Manitoba



What happened?

On January 20, 2014, brisk winds in southern Manitoba were occurring. It was noted at the Emerson weather station that the snow on the ground went from 29 cm to 42 cm between 16Z and 17Z, and the webcam shows why this was occurring: the wind was causing snow drifts to move quickly enough that the snow depth at any single point would change wildly from hour to hour. The animation from this webcam is presented here.

Here are the observations from about 2 hours before the animation begins to about 2 hours after it ends. 

WEX SA 1400 AUTO8 M M M 277/-22/-25/0115/M/0002 PK WND 0222 1347Z SOG 29 2047 96MM=
WEX SA 1500 AUTO8 M M M 303/-23/-26/0115/M/0002 PK WND 0122 1444Z PRESRR SOG 29 3056 96MM=
WEX SA 1600 AUTO8 M M M 329/-24/-28/3519/M/0002 PK WND 0123 1507Z PRESRR SOG 29 3062 16MM=
WEX SA 1700 AUTO8 M M M 349/-25/-29/3520/M/0002 PK WND 3424 1657Z SOG 42 1065 16MM=
WEX SA 1800 AUTO8 M M M 363/-25/-29/3521/M/0002 PK WND 3525 1755Z SOG 28 1053 52MM=
WEX SA 1900 AUTO8 M M M 372/-26/-29/3520/M/     PK WND 3426 1828Z SOG 28 1038 50MM=
WEX SA 2000 AUTO8 M M M 379/-25/-29/3417/M/     PK WND 3325 1931Z SOG 27 1027 59MM=
WEX SA 2100 AUTO8 M M M 382/-25/-28/3416/M/     PK WND 3321 2020Z SOG 28 1018 25MM=
WEX SA 2200 AUTO8 M M M 387/-25/-29/3413/M/     PK WND 3319 2111Z SOG 27 1014 16MM=
WEX SA 2300 AUTO8 M M M 396/-27/-30/3206/M/     SOG 28 3014 70MM=
Click here to see the webcam animation.

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Last update to this page: January 22, 2014