A local meteorologist says the extended cold spell we have been experiencing in southeastern Manitoba won’t be going away any time soon.

Scott Kehler says even though we haven’t broken any records for extended cold, it is abnormal to have below-average temperatures for such a long period of time.

"Since about the middle of January, it has been well below normal across all of southern Manitoba. In Steinbach, the weather station at Kleefeld has reported an average temperature of minus 20.7 through the first half of February which is about 8.1 degrees below normal for this time of year."

The normal daily high in Steinbach on February 20th is minus 7 degrees and the normal low is minus 16. Kehler says the colder temperatures are due to a consistent flow of cold air from the Arctic.

"That has been caused by a very persistent low-pressure system near Hudson's Bay and it continues to circulate counterclockwise and pull that cold air down from the Arctic. Until that low-pressure system over the eastern part of Canada and Hudson's bay finally decides to dissipate, we are going to continue to see this frequent push of arctic air down from the north giving us these temperatures."

Kehler says we shouldn’t expect the weather to warm up any time soon.

"Perhaps the next week or so will be slightly warmer then what we have seen for the first couple weeks of the month but definitely nothing really warm and then as we move toward the end of the month it will probably actually get a little bit colder again. Once we move into March, it will definitely warm up just because you have the stronger sun at that time of year but that doesn't mean that we are all of a sudden switch into melting conditions."

According to Kehler, colder than average temperatures are expected to persist until at least a week or two into March.