Shannon Dueck

If you have enjoyed the heat in May, you are in for a treat this summer. The Senior Climatologist with Environment Canada has released his summer weather outlook and says the month of May is a sign of things to come.

Weather forecasters use the meteorological calendar, which means summer starts on June 1st and ends on August 31st. David Phillips is forecasting those three months to be warmer than normal for the entire province of Manitoba. He notes that each of those three months is expected to be warmer. 

If you have enjoyed the heat in May, you are in for a treat this summer. The Senior Climatologist with Environment Canada has released his summer weather outlook and says the month of May is a sign of things to come.

Weather forecasters use the meteorological calendar, which means summer starts on June 1st and ends on August 31st. David Phillips is forecasting those three months to be warmer than normal for the entire province of Manitoba. He notes each of those three months is expected to be warmer. 

A cottage at Falcon Lake went up in flames Tuesday evening.

At approximately 8:50 pm, Falcon Lake RCMP received a report of a structure fire in Block 11 at Falcon Lake.

Officers attended the scene and saw the cottage engulfed in flames. 

The local fire department, with assistance from the Province of Manitoba Wildfire Service, attended and extinguished the blaze.

No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Police have recovered the bodies of two adults, believed to have died as the result of wildfires in the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet. 

On Wednesday at approximately 9:15 am, Lac du Bonnet RCMP recovered two bodies, believed to be an adult male and adult female, just off Wendigo Road. It is believed that both adults succumbed to injuries sustained in the wildfire.

RCMP were made aware on Tuesday that these individuals were trapped in the fire. However, due to extreme conditions, emergency personnel were not able to reach their location until Wednesday. 

More cottagers in the Whiteshell have been told to be ready for an evacuation order, as the result of an active wildfire burning near Ingolf, Ontario.

According to our province, an evacuation preparedness advisory has been issued for cottagers on the north side of West Hawk Lake, as well as Caddy Lake, Florence Lake, and Nora Lake. Residents in these areas are strongly encouraged to be ready for an evacuation, should conditions get worse. 

Several trails, water routes, portages, and backcountry campsites in Whiteshell Provincial Park are now closed until further notice.

A longtime resident, living near the Roseau River, says what he is witnessing this spring is unlike anything he has ever seen before.

Eighty-three-year-old Brian Grier says the water level along the Roseau River is the lowest he has ever seen it in spring. And for Grier, he has more than seven decades of springs to compare it to. Aside from spending eight years in Alberta, Grier has lived his entire life in the area. Grier is a Councillor for the Municipality of Emerson-Franklin. He also sits on the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District board. 

A tornado near Kleefeld and wild temperature swings throughout southern Manitoba made for an interesting week of weather.

But the most dramatic weather event might have happened at Delta Beach, where extreme winds produced an ice surge that wreaked havoc on lakefront properties.

People born and raised at Delta Beach, north of Portage la Prairie, say the ice comes in like clockwork every year. Though loud and sometimes crashing like an earthquake, the ice forming a ridge along the shoreline is typically harmless.  

Conservative Ted Falk will serve another term as Member of Parliament for Provencher. 

Falk first became the Member of Parliament for Provencher back in 2013, when he won a by-election, taking 58 per cent of the votes. He then served in government for two years until the Conservatives were defeated by the Liberals in 2015. Though the Conservatives lost that election, Falk was victorious. He would go on to win subsequent elections in 2019 and 2021. With what appears to be another victory in 2025, this will be Falk's 5th term in office. 

If advance voting was any indication, it seems there is a lot more interest than usual in next week's federal election. 

Marie-France Kenny is Regional Media Advisor for Elections Canada. She says 7.3 million electors voted by advance voting nationwide. This represents an increase of 26 per cent compared to the last general election in 2021. 

Residents of southeastern Manitoba continue to donate more money to charity than either the provincial or national average. That is according to recently released data from Statistics Canada.

Statistics Canada has now released figures from the 2023 tax year. The median donation per tax filer in Canada that year was $390 and for Manitoba, it was $600. Both those averages are up from 2022. The median donation amount represents the middle point: half of the donors gave more than the median and the other half gave less.