A very slow moving area of thunderstorms has brought excessive precipitation to the Altona, Gretna and Rosenfeld regions with streets in downtown Altona overflowing the curbs.
"The isolated thunderstorm cells popped up before 8am north, west and east of Morris, and since then have very slowly been tracking southward," noted CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "The storms were moving extremely slowly, and because they were moisture packed, that gave them the opportunity to unload considerable precipitation as they dragged southward."
Environment Canada issued Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for the Municipality of Rhineland (including Altona, Gretna and Rosenfeld), as well as the R.M. of Morris around 8:20 a.m. All warnings had ended before noon.
Our PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers and the Manitoba Ag Weather Network have reported the following totals from this morning's rain event:
Altona (northwest) - 75mm (3 inches)
Altona (southwest) - 55mm (2.2 inches)
Rosenfeld - 48.26 mm (1.9 inches)
Kane - 7.2mm
Morris - 6.1mm
Carman - 1.5mm
25mm = 1 inch
At one point, Manitoba Hydro reported over 1,000 customers in Altona were without power when the lights went out around 9:45 a.m.. The power was restored before 11:30 a.m. Monday morning.
According to Greg Zimmerman, Fire Chief for Altona/Rhineland Emergency Services, the reason for the outage was downed power lines brought down by a branch at 2nd St. SE. Manitoba Hydro crews were quickly on the scene to address.
Meanwhile, during the height of the rainfall, Altona Police Service warned residents to be aware of the street flooding in the downtown area.
The rainfall started to taper off around 10:15 a.m. in Altona, but a second storm cell located to the northwest of town brought even more rain to the community, with a second round of heavy rainfall starting just before 10:30 a.m., and in some cases almost doubling what came down in the first round.
"This slow-moving area of storms should be out of the area around noon at the latest," noted Sumner. "Monday afternoon we should see a mix of sun and cloud, with daytime highs pushing between 25 and 27 and feeling like the 32 to 34."
Watch the video below of the high water earlier today in downtown Altona.