Despite the mellow weather Manitoba has been experiencing for the past few weeks, cold temperatures are on the way.

Scott Kehler, President and Chief Scientist at Weatherlogics gives the rundown of how this winter season compares to last winter.

"This winter started off actually very similar to last winter. We had about the same amount of snow and cold temperatures up until about mid-December and then all of a sudden things change. So, from mid-December until now, it's gotten a lot warmer and less snowy."

Kehler says that because of this change, this winter to date is actually two degrees warmer than last winter. Considering the snowfall, Manitoba has seen almost half as much as there was at this point in 2022.

By the end of this week, the temperature is going to take a shift to a colder pattern which will last into February. 

Normally, when the temperature drops there also tends to be snowier periods in the forecast, which the province saw at the beginning of the season and again in the coming weeks.

Kehler says that if January were to end today, it would be placed in the seventh spot for the warmest January on record.

"With the colder weather coming toward the end of the month, the ranking will likely drop a little bit, but regardless, it will still end up being warmer than normal. Probably, I would guess somewhere in the top 20 out of 150 years."

The warmest January on record was back in 2006, with temperatures reaching above-freezing multiple times, dropping down to minus 30 degrees once and the rest of the month staying in minus single digits.

Kehler says that they do not see a lot of coldest month records as often, he says that over the past couple of decades, the winters have gotten continuously warmer.