At this point, all you really can do is make a joke of it, and with that in mind, third winter arrived last night, with snowfall finally starting to accumulate throughout Southern Manitoba. All Watches and Warnings have ended, but light snow and breezy conditions are expected throughout Friday morning and into the afternoon.
"Temperatures in the Red River Valley and Southeastern Manitoba remained above zero for pretty much the entirety of Thursday, and along with the warm ground, a significant amount of the snowfall and sleet we saw melted during the daytime hours yesterday," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "Further west, in the Darlingford, Manitou, Pilot Mound, Crystal City, Miami and Swan Lake regions slightly cooler temperatures along with the higher elevation led to more snow than a snow-rain mix, and accumulating snowfall was happening by late afternoon."
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Sumner added, as night fell and temperatures cooled just a degree or two, sliding just into freezing territory, that's when the return of winter began for the Valley and Southeast.
"Underneath that snow, is a layer of slush and ice, which is just being added to as the additional flakes fall today," he said. "Generally speaking, highway conditions throughout Southern Manitoba are snow, slush and ice covered with some blowing snow being reported, which is reducing visibility."
We can expect another few centimeters today, along with northerly winds gusting to 60 km/h, meaning travel conditions will be less than ideal for much of the day. Conditions will improve Friday night as this strong spring snow storm finally moves off eastward into northwestern Ontario, and impacts from it end.
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"The sky will clear, and the wind will back off this evening as high pressure builds behind this exiting system," noted Sumner. "That's setting up a sunny, albeit quite chilly for this time of year, weekend. Highs Saturday and Sunday will struggle to reach the +2 to +4 range, but the long-range forecast models are indicating a return to seasonal daytime highs and Spring-like conditions by mid-next week."
Average daytime highs for this time of year are around 14, with overnight lows of +1.