Blizzard Claims a Life; Calmer Weather Begins Tomorrow

     This long weekend was not the weekend for travel in Manitoba as a vigorous Alberta clipper connected to a Colorado Low in the United Sates ushered in a whole variety of weather conditions. On Sunday, relatively balmy temperatures allowed for freezing rain, freezing drizzle, ice pellets and snow grains in the Red River Valley and southeastern Manitoba. The worst of this was south of Winnipeg where freezing rain fell heavy enough to accumulate. Highways reportedly were turned into skating rinks. In addition, blustery south winds created drifting snow.

Massive drifts in Winnipeg Beach. Pic by @annhoogie

     Things then turned for the worst Sunday night as the centre of the low pressure system moved to the east. Cold air, snowfall and very strong winds were ushered behind the low Sunday evening. This continued throughout the overnight and Monday morning. Northwest winds were sustained between 40 and 50 km/h with gusts over 60 km/h at times. The strongest winds were in the southern Red River Valley with sustained winds of 60 to 70 and gusts as high as 80 km/h. These winds combined with newly falling snow created severe blowing snow and blizzard conditions throughout the Red River Valley for several hours. Total whiteout conditions were seen on highways outside Winnipeg. Black ice and snow drifts made travelling through the blowing snow even more challenging. As a result, most major highways were shut down for many hours including the Trans-Canada, highway 75, highway 16 and I-29 in North Dakota all the way to Grand Forks. Within Winnipeg, some motorists got stuck in drifts blowing onto some roadways. Snowfall ended late in the morning, but vicious winds continued to whip up the newly fallen snow through the afternoon.

     Hundreds of people were without power in the Windsor Park and St. James neighbourhoods of Winnipeg for part of Monday. In addition, the town of Île-des-Chênes south of Winnipeg also saw brief outages.

Absolute whiteout conditions in Emerson Monday

     Dozens of crashes were reported across southern Manitoba today, including a 10-vehicle pile-up west of Winnipeg near St. François Xavier Monday morning. No serious injuries were reported in that particular incident. In addition, many vehicles ended up in the ditch. A 54-year old motorist who got stranded in the ditch on Highway 210 west of Landmark was not so lucky. His body was found on the road about 50 metres away, and he was declared dead. RCMP are still not 100% certain what caused his death, but whiteout conditions were present at the time of the incident.

     As far as snowfall totals are concerned, it was a hard measure today thanks to all the blowing snow, but there were a few estimates. Highest amounts fell to the east and south of Winnipeg, with generally 10 to 15 cm reported. About 4 to 7 cm or so fell in Winnipeg. To some, it may have seemed like more but the blowing snow made it look like more. Some drifts are now as high as a metre in the RRV.

     This has been a snowy winter in Manitoba. About 124 cm of snow has fallen so far in Winnipeg since October, which is already about 7 cm more than what we normally get in an entire season (October to May).

     Winds are still strong this evening but they will be gradually winding down through the night with calmer conditions tomorrow. Temperatures will also be falling quite a bit tonight with lows in the mid to low minus twenties expected. We will struggle to exceed -20°C tomorrow afternoon. Wednesday will be similar with calm conditions, sunshine and cold temperatures only a few degrees warmer than Tuesday. Beyond that, the remainder of the week looks seasonal (normal lows are now about -17°C and normal highs around -7°C). Our next chance for some snow will be next weekend, however at this point it only looks like a few flurries and nothing that compares to what we experienced today.