PembinaValleyOnline News

The country's first Heat Warnings of the year were issued Saturday afternoon, and they were for parts of Southern Manitoba including the Red River Valley and Southeastern Manitoba, and as far west as the Killarney region.

The Pembina Valley is waking up to a smoky Friday morning, with a plume of forest fire smoke from northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba being pushed into the region.

"Gusty northerly winds are moving that smoky airmass into our area in behind a cold front which moved through earlier today," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "The smoky conditions won't last long, as winds are forecast to turn southerly Saturday as we enter another stretch of very hot and dry conditions for Mother's Day weekend."

It was an absolutely spectacular Monday in much of Southern Manitoba, but even though it was a sunny, breezy and hot day it appears it wasn't quite record setting. According to data from Environment Canada, in order for new records to be set across the Pembina Valley, daytime highs had to push above at least 33 degrees, and even thought it was warm, it wasn't that hot.

Other than some isolated drips and showers the last couple weeks, there has been a general lack of rainfall so far this Spring across the region. That changed Tuesday with the first widespread accumulating event of the season.

"It was the combination of two low pressure systems kind of meeting over Southeastern Saskatchewan and Southern Manitoba that led to the event we had yesterday," explained CMOS Accredited Weathercaster Chris Sumner. "One of the disturbances originally came out of Alberta, with the second pushing northward out of North Dakota."

Much of the Pembina and southern Red River Valley awoke Friday morning to yet another quick shot of sticky, wet snow.

It seems quite likely much of the Pembina and western Red River Valleys will be spared from the heaviest snowfall associated with a complex weather set up that saw its first wave lead to a quick shot of several centimeters of snow along and north of the Trans Canada highway late Thursday afternoon.

Updated Thursday, March 27th at 4:25 p.m. - It is still likely the Pembina and western Red River Valleys will see some snow from the complex weather set-up occurring over the next 24 hours, but according to Environment Canada, the heaviest bands of snow are now expected to remain further north beyond the region.

Snowfall Warnings have ended for the Carman, Portage, Brunkild, Winnipeg and Steinbach areas. A Special Weather Statement is now in effect.

Ahead of what could be a wintry start to Spring Break, Environment Canada has issued a Special Weather Statement for a significant portion of Western and Central Manitoba including the Carman, Portage, Brandon, Souris and Virden areas. Generally speaking, areas south of Highway 23 are currently not part of the statement.

Saturday was a very windy day across the Pembina and Red River Valleys, and several locations recorded peak wind gusts over 70km/h with sustained winds of 60km/h for a period of several hours.

Environment Canada has issued a Wind Warning Saturday morning for the Pembina and Red River Valleys, including the Morden, Winkler, Altona, Emerson, Morris, Steinbach and Vita regions.

Strong northwesterly gusts up to 90 km/h are expected Saturday morning over these areas.

According to data from the Manitoba Ag Weather Network, a gust of 81km/h was recorded early Saturday morning at Altona; 75km/h at Dominion City; 72km/h at Kane; 71km/h at Gretna and 70km/h at Elm Creek.

Find the latest forecast, here.