Staff

It’s a relatively rare occasion for what Environment Canada defines as a “Perfect Christmas” to occur. Of course, the weather agency is taking this from the perspective of the weather happening on a specific December 25th.

“It was apparent for a very long time we were going to have a white Christmas right across Southern Manitoba,” said CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. “But to have a have a perfect Christmas, from that forecast perspective, takes a little bit of extra weather magic.”

With Christmas weekend pretty much here, and some of the busiest travel days of the year ahead, hitting the road Friday will include dealing with reduced visibility in blowing snow and trying to stay warm in bitter cold. An Extreme Cold Warning remains in effect for all of Southern Manitoba, with wind chill values nearing or slightly surpassing -40 today. A Blowing Snow Advisory has also been issued for the Central Plains,  Red River Valley and Southeastern areas, including Portage la Prairie, Brandon, Neepawa, Gimli, Carman, Winkler, Morris, Steinbach and the city of Winnipeg.

With Christmas weekend pretty much here, and some of the busiest travel days of the year ahead, hitting the road Friday will include dealing with reduced visibility in blowing snow and trying to stay warm in bitter cold. An Extreme Cold Warning remains in effect for all of Southern Manitoba, with wind chill values nearing or slightly surpassing -40 today. A Blowing Snow Advisory has also been issued for the Red River Valley and Southeastern areas, including Morden, Carman, Winkler, Altona, Emerson, Morris, Vita, Steinbach and city of Winnipeg region.

With Christmas just a few days away, even more eyes than usual are on the forecast with many families planning travel across Southern Manitoba, and beyond, in the coming days. According to CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner, we may see some minor impacts over Christmas Eve through Boxing Day, but at this point, there are no major winter storms on the horizon.

With Christmas just a few days away, even more eyes than usual are on the forecast with many families planning travel across Southern Manitoba, and beyond, in the coming days. According to CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner, we may see some minor impacts over Christmas Eve through Boxing Day, but at this point, there are no major winter storms on the horizon.

A Winnipeg family is left without a home just days before Christmas after a devastating fire on Tuesday night.

The City of Winnipeg says in a release that crews were called to a home on Horrox Bay in the Riverbend neighbourhood around 8:20 p.m. 

Witnesses described the home as being completely engulfed in flames, and when firefighters from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) arrived the found heavy smoke and large flames coming from the home.

It was a jaw dropping site Winkler's Devin James caught on camera late Saturday night, one highlighting light from above on a clear and calm winter's night.

"I just went outside to grab some items from my shop at 10:45 pm," he explained in an email to PembinaValleyOnline. "I looked straight up into the night sky, and saw the coolest natural light show. The photo is looking straight up to the sky. It looks like northern lights, but everything came to a point directly above us."

A woman is in hospital this morning following a serious collision on Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway on Monday afternoon.

Emergency crews were called to the westbound lanes of the South Perimeter highway between Pembina Highway and Wilkes Avenue around 4 p.m.

The RCMP says that a car and truck collided, with the driver of the car suffering life-threatening injuries.

STARS Air Ambulance responded to the scene and transported to the women to Health Sciences Centre.

The weather story this week will be the very cold temperatures we’re expecting leading up to, and more than likely through, Christmas and Boxing Day, but the outlook has improved a bit from the bone-chilling temperatures first forecast.

Owen Pederson's second goal of the game at 1:54 of overtime gave the Winnipeg ICE a 4-3 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings Saturday night at the ICE Cave inside Wayne Fleming Arena.

Zach Benson also scored twice giving him a team high 20 goals and 46 points heading into the holiday break.

Brett Hyland replied with two goals for the Wheat Kings while Luke Shipley had the other.

Winnipeg outshot Brandon 36-19. Pederson led the ICE with six shots while Conor Geekie and Matthew Savoie each had five.