Brace for travel impacts with powerful weekend winds on the Prairies
Strong wind gusts between 80-90+ km/h may impact travel routes across all Prairies provinces this weekend
Hold on to your hats, and even your steering wheels. A strong low pressure system will quickly track from west to east across the Prairies this weekend, bringing powerful winds and rain along with it. In some southern sections of the region, gusts could reach as high as 80-90+ km/h.
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These winds will likely impact major travel routes and highway driving, and are notoriously known for swaying or even tipping transport trucks at this strength and speed.
You may also want to hold off on any Halloween decor, as the weekend winds would likely spoil anything displayed outside.
Friday night through Saturday:
A developing storm on Friday will strengthen over the Prairies through the weekend.
Winds along the foothills will pick up in speed on Friday, but increase and spread across Alberta's south throughout the evening. By late Friday evening, winds could reach 70-90+ km/h. Travel conditions will likely deteriorate along the QE2 south of Calgary through Friday night.
Overnight, these winds travel east across southern Saskatchewan, and will continue to pick up speed.
By Saturday winds will intensify up to 80-100 km/h in spots, and become widespread across all of southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Highways 1 and 16 could be impacted as the winds strengthen through Saturday.
Meanwhile, for areas north of the gusty winds, between 5-15 mm of rainfall is expected in central Saskatchewan and Manitoba, making for a gloomier fall weekend in some places.
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Temperatures will be cooler behind the system, before much warmer weather returns for next week.
Aside from this system over the weekend, however, a relatively quiet pattern is expected, with no major fall storms in sight just yet.
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Be sure to check back for the latest weather updates across the Prairies.
