About twenty-four hours after it began Thursday morning, Southern Manitoba is waking up to ditches filled with water, puddles on streets and much needed moisture in our rain gauges.
“The low pressure system that brought all of this rain continues to slowly track near the international border, and will be taking a turn to the northeast toward Hudson Bay today,” explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. “We’ll still feel its impacts today, with some additional light shower activity which will lead to a few more millimeters over the course of the day, but the majority of the precipitation with this system has now fallen.”
For your weekend forecast, check it out here.
The following totals are for Thursday, May 2nd through Friday, May 3rd at 6 a.m. (unless otherwise noted) and are courtesy PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers, Environment Canada and the Manitoba Ag Weather Network:
Reinland - 30mm (1.2 inches)
Morden – 27.2mm (Thursday only – 1.1 inches)
Winkler – 25.5mm (just over an inch)
Manitou – 23.7mm
Altona – 23.6mm
Plum Coulee - 23.36mm
Gretna – 21.9mm (Thursday only)
Emerson – 21.4mm (Thursday only)
Dominion City – 20.5mm
Kane – 20.3mm
Carman – 20.1mm
Jordan – 20.0mm (8/10)
Elm Creek – 18.8mm
Winnipeg – The Forks – 18.5mm (Thursday only)
Cartwright/Clearwater – 18.4mm
Pilot Mound – 16.2mm (Thursday only)
Morris – 13.6mm
Steinbach – 10.3mm (about 4/10)
25mm = 1 inch
Sumner expects the on-again, off-again shower activity to completely taper off by Friday evening with a drier pattern expected for the weekend. Before that happens, another wave of precipitation is expected to come back around from the system, and that could lead to a weak thunderstorm or two Friday afternoon.
“An area of surface high pressure will build behind this low, and that means back to sunshine and a rebound in temperatures,” he said. “I’m expecting sunshine for much of Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, with highs Saturday in the mid-teens and Sunday pushing warmer, still, into the upper teens.”
Averages for the start of May are 17 degrees for a daytime high and +3 for an overnight low.
The drier pattern won’t last long, with another upper level low coming off the Rockies early next week, and similar to the last few, track toward the Dakotas and Southern Manitoba.
“Ahead of that low, a very strong southerly flow will develop, and that means much warmer conditions than what we’ve had the last few days,” noted Sumner. “Highs to start the week may be in the low 20s, and be alongside breezy southerly winds. This low will also be tapping into moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, meaning it will have the potential to also be a somewhat significant rainmaker, depending on the track it takes.”
And that’s the x-fact, at this point, according to Sumner. At this point, the low is expected to arrive in our region by Monday night, but when the rain will begin and for how long, is still to be determined.