Snow wallops western Manitoba, but Winnipeg remains wet

While Winnipeg avoided the snow, Western Manitoba got hit and one Elgin restaurant owner explains the challenges he faces.

Depending where you woke up in Manitoba Wednesday morning, you could be faced with snow or rain.

Winnipeg has been hit by non-stop rain, but in western Manitoba, snow has prompted school and highway closures.

Shannon Moodie of Environment and Climate Change Canada told 680 CJOB’s The Start that a Texas low hit the western part of the province with snow, stalling out over the Red River Valley.

The storm has also led to dangerous driving conditions, thanks to strong winds and blowing snow.

“In the Red River Valley we’ve been a little bit luckier, because the low is kind of right over us,” Moodie said.

“But in the west, they’re really in a tight northwest gradient — Brandon’s been seeing winds that are almost sustained at 60 km/h, with gusts encroaching on 80.”

Brandon, Moodie said, saw about six centimetres of snow overnight, while in Winnipeg, things will continue to look pretty wet for the time being.

“The Winnipeg airport reported 28.5 millimetres, and just a little bit more at the Forks, so we’re really looking at Winnipeg receiving about 30 millimetres of rain yesterday.

“The airport is already reporting snow, but our temperature is hovering around zero, so we’re really going to see wet snow today. Things are going to start to cool off later this afternoon into the evening and that’s when we’re going to see a few more flakes that will fall.”

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And while a snowstorm has yet to make its way to Winnipeg, the city’s director of street maintenance says the city will be ready if and when it does.

“We’ve been ready for any changes in temperature,” Michael Cantor told 680 CJOB.

“We have salt trucks monitoring the roads and our bridges to make sure nothing is icing up. So far so good — the roads look pretty good this morning, and we’ll continue to monitor.”

Cantor said rain can wash away the salt and de-icing liquid, which is why it hasn’t been done pre-emptively.

“If something changes, we’ll treat the roads … but until then, we’ll just be monitoring and we’ll wait for some either icing up or accumulation.”