Winter is coming: Overdue cold, snow en route to southern Manitoba

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Peggy

It was nice while it lasted, but southern Manitoba’s fall weather is about to replaced with colder temperatures — and a dumping of snow — in the forecast.

Kyle McAuley of Environment and Climate Change Canada told 680 CJOB’s The Start that a winter storm watch, issued for much of the southwestern section of the province, expanded to even more communities overnight.

Brandon, Morden, Winkler, Portage la Prairie and La Salle are all in line for some stormy weather, with Winnipeg potentially added to the watch over the next few days as the system moves closer to the city.

“It’s actually a Texas low, coming from the Texas panhandle, that’s moving up to the north,” McAuley said.

“This low-pressure system is going to pull down quite a bit of cooler air, with rain coming in sometime likely tonight or early Tuesday morning.

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Along with that, a chance of some freezing rain when temperatures are below zero, then there’s going to be kind of wet snow, with more snow after that, and some pretty windy conditions.”

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Those conditions, he said, could include 50-70 km/h winds, resulting in blowing snow and causing hazardous driving conditions — and the snow is expected to be more than just a light dusting.

“(There will be) around 10-15 mm of rain, and that’s going to be transitioning to snow sometime later on Tuesday — likely in the evening hours as temperatures reach the zero mark.

“It’s a little uncertain to say right now but it’s looking like five, maybe even up to 10 cm of snow.”

The region will also feel a drastic drop in temperature — the opposite of the unseasonably warm November weather to this point.

“We’re going to be pretty much at normal temperatures,” he said.

“We’ve been spoiled for the last few weeks, with pretty warm above-seasonal temperatures, so we’re going to get more into the normal winter… that’s well overdue, I’d say.”