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Rain, rain certainly didn't go away

Manitoba sees one of wettest Mays on record

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 05/30/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Steve Kosc (left) and Cory Giesbrecht take advantage of the rare glimmer of sunshine lately to fish at La Barriere Park on Tuesday. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

One of the wettest Mays on record has eased fears southern Manitoba was headed into a summer drought.

Over the past 30 days, almost 100 millimetres of rain has fallen, with some pockets of the province getting even more, seeing rain 20 of the past 30 days.

"It's been a total turnaround," David Phillips, Environment Canada's senior climatologist, said Tuesday. "It's almost as if it's the monsoon season."

Southern Manitoba was coming out of the second-driest winter on record since 1872, with little precipitation falling since the previous June. It was the same across the Prairies and south through Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Just weeks ago, all signs pointed to a drought.

The skies opened up starting in March, and opened even wider when the calendar flipped from April to May.

"Clearly, May has been the tough month," Phillips said, adding June is generally the wettest month.

In the entire three-month period starting in March, 181 millimetres of rain fell as measured by the weather station at the Richardson International Airport. The normal amount is 112 mm. The wettest three-month period on record was 230 mm in 1974.

Phillips said 95.5 mm of rain fell in May alone as of Monday -- the normal for May is 58 mm -- with more rain in the forecast, which should push it above 100 mm before the month ends.

That's not a record -- the soggiest May was in 1977, with 178 mm of rain.

"So it wasn't a real soaker, but clearly it has been the wettest month in the last year and a half," Phillips said.

What's also set this past month apart is the ferocity of what's fallen. It hasn't been gentle summer showers, but sudden back-to-back cloudbursts.

"Almost three-quarters of your rainfall occurred on four days. They were heavy suckers, real soakers."

The province's Agriculture Department says they were so heavy Winnipeg has had 46 per cent more rain than normal since April 1 and Selkirk has had 73 per cent more rain than normal.

And four towns in western Manitoba have had more than twice their normal rainfall since April 1: Swan Valley, Birtle, Carberry and Hamiota. Several others received close to double their usual amount of rain.

Of the 53 locations the Agriculture Department monitors, 42 reported higher rainfall amounts than normal, most of them significantly higher. The town with the highest reported rainfall since April 1 (through Sunday) was Carberry, with 158 mm.

Pam de Rocquigny, a cereal-crop specialist with the province, said the recent rain has helped most farmers. In the past week, precipitation and accumulations varied from three mm up to 60 mm in different areas.

"It will definitely help in terms of the crops that have been seeded and have been in the ground for a while and those recently seeded crops, too," de Rocquigny said. "Rain was definitely welcomed by many producers."

It's been even wetter in Saskatchewan; parts of that province have seen more than 200 per cent more rain than normal in the past month.

A lot of that water is headed this way as it drains into Lake Winnipeg via the Assiniboine River.

Already, the river is creeping closer to the river walkway.

The Shellmouth Reservoir northwest of Russell is filling up and threatening to spill.

Lake Winnipeg, measured at 713.7 feet above sea level on May 1, is expected to rise four inches to 714 feet by the end of the month, but Manitoba Hydro says it could go to 715 feet by July if the wet weather continues.

It's the same on flood-hit Lake Manitoba, which is also partly fed by what falls in Saskatchewan.

"We're still getting a ton of water out of the Waterhen River and Lake Winnipegosis," Association of Lake Manitoba Stakeholders vice-president and Delta Beach resident Don Clarkson said.

South of us, the wet weather has also dampened concerns of a drought in the northern U.S. states and upper Midwest, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 30, 2012 A8

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