It was another busy day for PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers Wednesday with non-severe and severe thunderstorms rumbling across the region, bringing reports of small hail and heavy downpours. A Tornado Watch was in effect for much of the day, with multiple Tornado Warnings issued for areas outside our region, including portions of the southern Interlake and Westman, where weather watchers there indicated a small tornado touched down near Brookdale, located southwest of Neepawa.
Closer to home, Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued for the Morden, Winkler and Altona regions late Wednesday afternoon.
"As an area of low pressure slid through Southern Manitoba, it kicked off thunderstorm activity in the mid afternoon through early evening hours," said CMOS Accredited Weatherscaster Chris Sumner. "Some of those storm cells were moving quite slowly, and that gave them ample opportunity to drop a significant amount of rainfall, as evidenced by the pictures in the gallery below taken in Winkler."
Sumner noted Thursday afternoon and early evening may bring another round of thunderstorm activity, but at this point, with a slight risk of severe thunderstorm development, but he added the amount of instability in the atmosphere is less than Wednesday.
The following totals are courtesy PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers, Environment Canada and the Manitoba Ag Weather Network.
Reinland – 50mm (and dime size hail – 2 inches)
Winkler (in city) – 27mm (almost 1.1 inches)
Windygates – 20.3mm (around 8/10th)
Winkler (south of city) 16.8mm
Carman – 16.2mm
Gretna - 11.8mm
Plum Coulee - 11.43mm
Steinbach – 11mm (just over 4/10th)
Manitou – 3.6mm
Altona (rural) – 2.9mm
Emerson - 2.6mm
Clearwater – 2.4mm (almost 1/10th)
Dominion City – 1.9mm
Morden - 1.1mm
Pilot Mound - 0.7mm
25mm = 1 inch
"For Thursday, high pressure starts building into the region, leading to a quiet pattern for Canada Day weekend," explained Sumner. "Friday, Canada Day and Sunday we should see mainly sunny conditions, and temperatures pushing into the uppers 20s and low 30s as upper level ridging in the atmosphere once again allows for warm air from the south to move in. Humidity is also expected to increase throughout the weekend, with Sunday looking like the muggiest day of the stretch, feeling like the mid-30s, more than likely."