PembinaValleyOnline News

We're waking Friday up to a much cooler and comfortable start to the day, but also a very smoky one. Air Quality Warnings are in effect for essentially all of Southern Manitoba.

"Wildfire smoke has returned to Southern Manitoba behind a cold front that swept through yesterday," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "Northwesterly surface winds, coupled with northwesterly winds aloft, have pushed that smoke southward from forest fires in Northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan."

The first of several disturbances this week brought another round of precipitation to parts of the Pembina and Red River Valley on Monday, the third time its rained in some locations since Canada Day.

"That may not sound that notable," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "But some places in May and June only had rain two or three times over the course of the respective month. After the area was starting to talk about getting dry, for much of the region, we are catching up on that moisture deficit we had since the start of Spring."

After some parts of the Pembina Valley received between 50 and nearly 70mm of rainfall early Friday morning, according to our PembinaValleyOnline Rainwatchers, a few locations received a second round of precipitation Friday evening.

For the second time this week, a series of severe thunderstorms rumbled across the region early Friday morning, with Warnings again issued for the Morden, Winkler, Altona, Emerson and Vita regions.

After flirting with hot and humid the last couple of days, we are now officially into that with Environment Canada issuing Heat Warnings for all of Southern Manitoba. Today and Friday look like they will be the most humid days of the Summer, so far, with it feeling like nearly 40 at times as daytime highs push to 31 to 33 degrees.

Multiple rounds of thunderstorms, some severe, rolled through parts of the Pembina and Red River Valleys beginning late Canada Day evening.

Starting Wednesday, Southern Manitoba entered a much more active weather pattern than in recent weeks. That from CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner.

A couple rounds of precipitation arrived across the Pembina and Red River Valleys over the weekend.

"The first came mid to late Saturday afternoon when the cold front associated with a low pressure system centred over northern Manitoba swept through the region," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "A line of storms from the Interlake south into North Dakota developed along that front. There have been a couple of reports of extremely gusty winds as the front moved from west to east."

A very much welcomed round of showers wound through the region late Monday morning into mid-afternoon. The last accumulating rainfall across much of the area came May 20th, and that was only a few millimeters in most cases.

Forest fire smoke is expected to return to the region today, so Environment Canada has issued a Special Air Quality Statement for the Red River Valley and Southeastern Manitoba. Included are places like Morden, Carman, Winkler, Altona, Emerson, Winnipeg, Dominion City, Steinbach and Vita.