July 2013 Summary

     Although many storms managed to evade Winnipeg in July, it was actually a fairly active month overall in southern Manitoba. In total, severe thunderstorm warnings were issued on 15 days, with southwestern Manitoba taking the brunt of the severe weather.

July 13 west of Reston, Manitoba

     A total of 4 tornadoes were confirmed, all of which were of EF-0 strength. Three did little to no damage and were in open fields near Roblin (July 6), Deloraine (July 21) and Morris (July 24). The Sioux Valley First Nation west of Brandon was not as lucky. A tornado struck town on July 18 and greatly damaged some homes. Other tornadoes may have touched down as well during the month, however they remain unconfirmed. This includes the Pipestone event of July 13 which caused severe damage in the town. It is still up in the air whether or not this damage was due to a tornado or plough winds.

     In Winnipeg, there were 6 thunderstorm days in July which is right around the normal of 7 days. So far this year there have been 11 thunderstorm days, which is below the normal of 17 days for the same period (*all 1981-2010 estimated normals*). (By the way, I have finished gathering a bunch of stats when it comes to thunderstorms in Winnipeg since 1953... and I will add these to the record books page in the coming weeks. I will make a new post about this when it is ready)

     A few heavy thunderstorms helped bring rainfall totals to around normal at the airport in Winnipeg with 80.0 mm. However, other parts of the city didn't get as much. 76.1 mm fell in Charleswood but just 61.5 mm fell here in south St Vital. Heaviest rainfall amounts in southern Manitoba were mainly in southwestern Manitoba where thunderstorms were more frequent. Amounts between 130 and 160 mm were recorded around Melita and Deloraine according to Manitoba Agriculture... and also further north near Swan River.

     Moving to temperatures... The month was two-faced. The dog days of summer greeted us into July with some 30°C days. 3 consecutive days above 32.0°C from July 2-4 at my place in south St Vital made it a heat wave with highs of 32.3°C, 32.9°C and 32.1°C. Then the summer weather took a turn mid month... Daytime highs remained consistently 2-7°C below normal for the remainder of the month. Nights were cool with lows in the single digits. Record lows were established on July 27. Winnipeg's low of 5.6°C broke the old record of 5.8°C in 1978. It got as low as 2°C in Wasagaming.

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Links and photos of some major events that occurred:

July 6-7 night thunderstorm produces a magnificent lightning display west of Winnipeg
July 13 severe thunderstorms in southwestern Manitoba photo gallery

July 18 thunderstorms.. Winnipeg got torrential rains from these (about 15 mm in 15 min in some spots)

     Thunderstorms in the evening of July 21 in Winnipeg produced a fantastic lightning display with frequent lightning. There were many cloud-to-ground strikes... which of course is bad news in urban areas. Unfortunately, as many as 5 fires were sparked by lightning in Winnipeg according to Global.


Funnel cloud south Winnipeg July 24