Temperatures return to seasonal as unfavorable weather continues into next week
Ryan Harding, NTV Weather Centre
Friday truly brought a little bit of everything. The province had wind, rain and snowfall alerts – all the while St. John’s hit 16 degrees while Labrador city was experiencing a wind chill of -41.
The winds shift from south to southwest Friday evening, clipping at a pace for the eastern portion of the island. These winds are going to quickly drop the temperature back to a January seasonal range and welcome a wind chill province-wind.
The 110 km/h winds that toggled the wind alert for parts of Newfoundland will hold at coastal gusts of 80-90 km/h into Saturday morning, and reduce to the high-end of average by the afternoon. Cold and windy, yes – but also sunny. Out side of some passing flurries on the West Coast, Labrador through Newfoundland be spend Saturday under the sun.
In a province where we pick our moments to enjoy the outdoors, you know the next system is never that far ahead. As it stands, there is another low-pressure system looking to make landfall Sunday evening, entering Newfoundland first as snow on the South Coast.
This latest system brings a band of snow in front of some back end rain, meaning there is some work to be done tracking the transition line.
As it stands, it looks like the rain will take over the South Coast, Burin and Avalon Peninsula well before sunrise Sunday morning, the entire system out the other side by mid-afternoon. Before the transition, the South Coast is looking at 5-10 cm of snow, with the Avalon aiming for five. West Coast, Central and Baie Verte Peninsula is looking to be limited to 1-3 cm. The rain totals are mild, at most 5-10 mm.
We don’t have to wait that long for the next system to roll through. Enjoy the Sunday afternoon because that evening we have some higher totals in both rain and snow kicking off into Monday morning, entering even more of Newfoundland into the weather chat. 10-15 cm seems like a safe, reasonable average for much of the island, with another five on the docket for the Metro region.
For Labrador, the weekend brings a healthy amount of sun and cloud. But the cold temperatures will hold with west winds.
For more information, be sure to tune into the Sunday Evening Newshour, Sunday at 6 pm, with Jodi Cooke and Amanda Mews.