Winter’s here!
Province issued winter storm and flood warnings
Tessa Vanderhart, Staff
Photo by David Lipnowski.
Winter hit Manitoba last Monday, but you can’t say we didn’t have it coming.
The first winter storm warning of the year was issued on Sunday, Nov. 13. The warning was fulfilled, and more, with 20-35 centimetres of snow falling on the city of Winnipeg late Monday night.
The city awoke Tuesday morning to snowed-in streets and winds of 50-60 km/h. These same winds whipped highway traffic into a frenzy and exacerbated already high water levels in Lake Winnipeg.
But University of Manitoba professor and retired climatologist Jay Anderson said that the winter storm was entirely normal — for Manitoba.
Each year, temperatures in Manitoba fluctuate between -40 and +40 degrees Celsius; Manitoba’s geography means that this change can be all too rapid, as it was over the past few days.
“The fact that we went from +4 to -20 in three days, that’s a lot of difference. There’s a lot of energy in that,” he said.
This energy led to strong winds and blowing snow in addition to the dump, all part of Manitoba’s continental climate, which Anderson compared to the “classic” example of Siberia.
This classic winter storm came from a combination of cold air from Hudson’s Bay and warm air from Colorado, Montana and Alberta. “The clash builds itself into one of these big weather systems,” he noted.
“Oh, we’ll remember this [storm] for a while,” said Anderson. “It doesn’t look like there are a lot of big weather systems coming over the next week or two — but of course, there’s a long way to go before winter’s over.”
Winter storms are more dangerous than blizzards, noted Environment Canada spokesperson Dale Marcizki. Large quantities of snow combined with strong winds,often exacerbate conditions.
This was also a problem along Lake Winnipeg, as water from the lake — already substantially higher than normal — overcame temporary dikes in three locations in the rural municipality of Gimli, according to municipal councillor Gil Strachan.
“These storms are not unusual, but this one is causing more damage and more stress because the water is higher than average and the winds were quite high,” he noted. “It’s tough to cope with, because the lake is the lake is the lake.”
Flooding was, for the most part, averted by the construction of a comprehensive system of dikes for several kilometres. Otherwise, said Strachan, property damage from the storm would have been much worse than it was.
“We haven’t had any significant flooding,” Strachan noted, adding that the three affected residences were isolated incidents and did not represent failures of the dike, despite media reports.
The temporary dikes, which have been controversial among those with lakefront property, were put in by the provincial government, which is now condemning the federal government for not contributing additional funds to add 30 centimetres to the preventative dikes.
The past year of weather has led to much higher water levels in the lake than generally expected, which could also contribute to a spring flood, according to Anderson, although he noted that flood patterns are determined by more than fall water levels and snowfall.
