Second winter? Maybe third winter? Or could it be that spring now arrives in May? At this point, all you really can do is make a joke of it. Snowfall finally started to accumulate in Portage Thursday morning after hitting much of Southern Manitoba Wednesday. All Watches and Warnings have ended, but light snow and breezy conditions are expected throughout Friday morning and into the afternoon.
All things considered, at least for Portage, it could have been worse. Things are quite slick and the day ahead won't be very nice, but we were certainly on the low end of the forecast accumulations. Much of the snow also melted as it fell.
"Temperatures in the Central Plains, 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. "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."
One stretch of highway is closed this morning and it is the same piece that was closed for a short period yesterday morning. The Trans-Canada (Highway #1) has been shut down west of Brandon at Griswold near the Oak Lake turnoff. It is closed in both directions between that spot and the Saskatchewan border.
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The weather was the cause of well over one hundred power outages around the region yesterday but crews have dealt with most of them and as of this morning only a few remain and those are near the Manitoba/US border near Boissevain.
Sumner added, as night fell and temperatures cooled just a degree or two, sliding just into freezing territory.
"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.