The latest storm in southern Manitoba continued, leaving cold air, messy clean-ups and renewed fears of flooding.
Heavy rain, snow and at times the icy mixture of the two, accompanied by strong winds, hit much of the south from Friday to Sunday – just eight days after a three-day snowstorm hit the same regions.
A meteorological system called low in Colorado was responsible for both weather events.
“Colorado is not the source of all diseases, but it has been bothering us for some time,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Dan Fulton.
Several school departments canceled classes or buses on Monday due to poor road conditions or power outages.
The Manitoba Hydro website on Monday morning still lists about 620 outages affecting more than 13,000 customers.
– @manitobahydro
The worst damage is in the southwest, near the Parkland area and near Interlake, Hydro tweeted Monday.
“We have dozens of wooden poles or broken ones that need to be replaced to turn the power on again.”
The system brought between 50 and 70 millimeters of rain to Winnipeg, but Altona recorded the most – 76 mm. Brandon received only 38 mm, but reported the strongest gusts of wind at 100 kilometers per hour.
Other large amounts of precipitation were recorded in Selkirk (57 mm), Morden (56 mm) and Pinawa (52 mm).
The straits overloaded Winnipeg’s sewer systems, leaving subways and many roads impassable, forcing drivers to abandon stalled vehicles.
Flooded basements and yards led to the influx of pumps into hardware stores, many of which were depleted.
This traffic light on Grant Avenue in Winnipeg succumbed to the gusts of wind on Sunday. (Darren Bernhard / CBC)
“It was almost a summer system, especially on Saturday night, as some of these stronger thunder and lightning storms approached Winnipeg. “We were getting pretty high levels of rainfall,” Fulton said.
“Adding to the challenge [right now]much of the infrastructure is still congested [and] this has certainly led to quite severe floods. “
There were 1,142 storm-related calls or emails to 311 Winnipeg Service over the weekend, city spokesman David Driger said.
Of these, 695 are for flooded streets or ditches, 412 for basement flooding and 35 for raising the water level in holding lakes.
A CAA spokesman in Manitoba said the car agency had more than twice the average number of towing calls on Sunday, 89, compared to 40 on a typical Sunday.
In addition, the agency is expected to exceed its average number of 150 tow-related calls on Monday, in part due to poor road conditions and Sunday’s backlog.
In terms of snow, the worst affected area was again the Parkland area and its higher terrain around Riding Mountain National Park, Fulton said, but no common ground yet.
An earlier snowstorm caused by the lows in Colorado left some places under up to 82 inches of snow.
All of last week’s rainfall has also raised river levels and sparked flood warnings in the Red River Valley from Emerson to the influx of floods south of Winnipeg. Land flood warnings have also been introduced.
The turbulent system has moved to Ontario, with much lower temperatures behind it.
In most parts of the south, a little sun is expected to return on Monday, but with a maximum temperature of around -3 C. The normal maximum for this time of year is 14 C.
Temperatures should slowly rise again during the week, possibly even reaching double-digit highs by the end of the week, but Environment Canada predicts more clouds and rain.
“There is potential for another system this weekend. But you know what, there are five days left until that, and I’ll try not to worry about that, because, well, I hope the five days push him in one direction or the other, “Fulton said.
“But yes, there are indications that there may be another one this weekend. I really hope it doesn’t happen.”
Manitoba issues flood warning amid spring storm
Manitoba has issued a flood warning in the province’s Red River Valley, from the southern Emerson community near the United States border to the entrance to the Red River Floodway south of Winnipeg. 2:49
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