Weekend Outlook: Goodbye, snow

Despite a light dusting of snow last night, we will head into the weekend with more snow-melting weather as temperatures climb several degrees above the freezing mark. 

It's fair to say that the trace amounts of snow will be reduced to man-made piles in parking lots and lawns. It was only a week ago that 15cm of snow blanketed the region, but now we are starting to see the grass again. 

A look at this weekend last year shows there was over 30cm of snow already. Our next chance of snow that may need to be shovelled holds off until Wednesday - and that's not a sure thing.

Isolated lake effect flurries Friday morning should give way to partial clearing through the day. Gusty northwest winds off of Lake Superior will make daytime highs of 0°C feel more like -5°C. A weak southerly wind arrives Saturday night to help keep temperatures only a few degrees below freezing.

We should see some extended periods of sunshine on Saturday, and this combined with a southerly wind should help push the daytime high to near 5°C. The winds turn toward the west in the afternoon and evening as a few clouds move into the region.

The end of the weekend will see increasing cloud cover and a 20% chance of a morning flurry, but temperatures should again climb close to 5°C. Daytime highs remain above freezing heading into early next week with an outside chance of a winter storm arriving on Wednesday. Stay tuned.