Saturday 19 May 2012

Severe Storms Rumble in Southeastern MB

Pic by Rebecca Schleicher
     It was a stormy end to a warm and humid Friday for many of us in and east of the RRV. Storms began to develop after 7 pm, and moved into Winnipeg just before 8 pm. Multiple cells grouped together and battered Winnipeg between 8 and 9 PM. West, central and north parts of the city were hardest hit, where long-lived torrential downpours overwhelmed sewers, flooding some roads. Hail also fell in those areas, with reports of hail as large as marbles. The hail was even accumulating in some spots since it was falling for such a long period of time. There were several reports of 25 to 35 mm of rain with this storm.

     South and east ends of the city evaded most of the storms and as a result only received a general 5 to 10 mm.

     Strange cloud formations were also seen, as some described the storm as looking like a 'giant flying saucer'. Lightning was frequent and at times intense. It was mostly cloud-to-cloud lightning, though there were several cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-air strikes as well.

     The storm is being blamed for a partial roof-collapse. Full story here.

     The storms continued to move east of the city into eastern Manitoba late in the evening with many severe thunderstorm warnings.
Pic by Charmaine Straker
Visible satellite imagery of the storms over Winnipeg near 8:30 PM

6 comments:

  1. Rain will be moving back in in about an hour. An additional 5 to 15 mm will be possible today. Things will begin to move out mid/late afternoon with clearing skies in the evening.

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  2. Areas to the south and east of Winnipeg will be seeing more thunderstorms today. Some storms are moving through southeast of Steinbach as we speak. Storms will stay non-severe today with the main threats being heavy rain and frequent lightning.

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  3. 12 mm at my place since 8 pm last night. That's pretty much the lowest in the city quite frankly. Almost up to 40 mm in central Winnipeg in the same timeframe. Perhaps another 5 to 10 mm left this afternoon.

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  4. Rain will be moving out within the next hour and a half. 15 mm at my place now (since 8 pm last night).

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  5. Rain over in the next half hour.

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  6. Frost warnings issued from The Pas all the way down to the International Border, and west of Lake Manitoba and Morden/Portage. The warning also includes a section of the Interlake; the Arborg and Ashern region. The dry and stable airmass with clear skies will allow temperatures to drop near or below zero, according to Environment Canada. Areas to the east, like Winnipeg, Steinbach, Gimli and Bisset regions should not see widespread frost tonight as temperatures stay in the mid to high single digits for lows.

    If you live in a warning area and you've got plants already that may be susceptible to frost, it would be a good idea to cover them, or if they are in a pot, to bring them indoors to protect them.

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