Colleen Bready’s forecast: mild temperatures on collision course with cold front

Colleen Bready has your current conditions and updated weather forecast for Dec. 16, 2025.

We are riding a rollercoaster of weather conditions in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario this week, courtesy of a pair of Alberta clippers.

The first clipper is crossing Manitoba Tuesday. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), 8-13 cm of snow fell overnight in northern Manitoba.

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But this system is bringing record-breaking temperatures to the south.

In Winnipeg, the temperature reached 5.8 C by 10 a.m. at the airport, and 6.2 C by 11 a.m. at The Forks, besting the previous record of 5.6 C set in 1877.

Mild Pacific air is to thank for the soaring mid-December temperatures, but it’s on a collision course with a cold front that is bringing strong and gusting northwest winds Tuesday afternoon.

That, along with rain and melting snow, has prompted ECCC to issue a flash freeze warning for southern Manitoba. Many southwestern areas are also under a wind warning, including Brandon.

As temperatures fall this afternoon across the south, expect wet surfaces, including roads and highways, to become slippery quickly both this afternoon and tonight.

A flash freeze warning is also in effect in northwestern Ontario, where showers falling Tuesday could lay the groundwork for slippery roads and highways tonight and the cold front swing through.

A second, more potent clipper will cross southern Manitoba Wednesday.

Snow is expected to arrive first in the southwest in the morning, before spreading to the southeast in the afternoon by midday. There will also be a risk of freezing rain.

At this point, ECCC says Brandon and Winnipeg will be along the heaviest snowfall path.

By Wednesday night, anticipates near-blizzard or blizzard conditions over southern Manitoba Wednesday night into Thursday, adding these conditions could possibly last in the Red River Valley until Thursday afternoon.

Expect highway closures.