Colleen Bready's forecast: Warm temperatures sweeping across Manitoba

Now that Santa has returned to the North Pole, we await a new year less than a week away.

The last few days of 2024 will be warm by late December standards, especially on Friday.

By 7 a.m., temperatures had already climbed above the freezing mark in Winnipeg.

The forecast high for the city today is 3 C, 15 degrees above the normal high of -12 C for this time of year.

However, that won’t break any warm weather records. Winnipeg’s record high temperature for Dec. 27 is 6.4 C set in 1980.

Similar temperatures across southern Manitoba will come close to, or exceed, 0 C this afternoon.

Snow, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, and fog are all possible across the region. Snow is more likely in the southwest but can’t be ruled out in the southeast.

Further east, it will be a drizzly, foggy, and mild day across northwestern Ontario. By tonight, those conditions will continue, but rain will add to the mix.

Today, northern Manitoba will also be cloudy, foggy and mild with daytime highs in the minus single digits.

A low moving out of Alberta will spread mainly snow, but also some rain, into central and northern regions by this evening into Saturday.

Light snow or drizzle is possible this evening in the south. Fog is expected to develop overnight as the sky starts to clear.

The last weekend of the year will bring a nice mix of sun and cloud to Winnipeg. Temperatures will drop off a few degrees, but will remain well above normal.