Red River Ex finds cold comfort in large, final-day crowd

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This article was published 26/06/2017 (3218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Maybe the Red River Exhibition needs to get Noah’s Ark as a ride on the midway next year.

The annual Red River Exhibition, which began June 16 and wrapped up Sunday, persevered through days of rain and below-seasonal temperatures through its run, capped off with what officials believe could be a record-setting attendance for a Sunday on its final day.

And, to top off a week and a half of bad weather — on one of those days Winnipeg set a weather record — but not one we really wanted to break.

“It has been terrible,” Garth Rogerson, CEO of the Red River Exhibition Association, admitted Sunday.

“Today (Sunday) it sprinkled rain for a while, but it was just a sprinkle. But with that sprinkle it made us have nine days of rain.

“I can’t — and nobody can — remember that many days of bad weather.”

Jeremy Kusyk, an Environment Canada meteorologist, said Saturday’s high temperature reached only 12.6 C — besting the record of 13.9 C set in 2004 — for the coldest high temperature for a June 24.

“It’s a record you don’t want to set,” Kusyk said.

“And it was broken by a pretty significant amount. What’s more, Saturday was your coldest day in June since June 8, 2009.

“It was definitely not your average temperatures for Winnipeg in June.”

The average high is supposed to be 24 C for this time of year.

Starting when the Ex opened June 16, the high was 16.9 C, followed by 17.3 C Saturday, 16.7 C Sunday, 20.6 C Monday, 22.5 C Tuesday, 18.9 C Wednesday, 21.7 C Thursday, and 15.4 C Friday.

Besides Saturday’s chilly temperature, there was also 2.9 millimetres of rain.

The mercury on Sunday reached 16 C by 3 p.m., but dropped to 14 C an hour later. Mind you, that’s much better than the overnight low on Sunday morning of 4 C, which rebounded to about 13 C by the time the admission gate opened at 10:30 a.m.

Kusyk said the cause of the weather is we’re on the wrong side of the jet stream and it has been “an active weather system” with cool and moist weather coming here.

It left many fairgoers admitting they waited until a nice day to spend a day at the Ex, even if it turned out to be the final day.

“We held off until (Sunday) because of the weather,” Randy Lagimodiere said as he and his 11-year-old son, Jordan, waited at the end of a long line to ride the Crazy Mouse.

“I still wore a hoody because it is cool in the shade. I’ve been coming since I was eight years old and this is the coolest day I’ve ever been here.”

The cooler temperatures weren’t stopping Jordan though.

“It is pretty cool and the clouds are over, but there’s no rain,” Jordan said.

“I like there’s a whole bunch of new rides this year. And they’re not as scary as they used to be when I was younger.”

Corinne Grift and her 12-year-old daughter, Brianna, travelled all the way from Morden to take in the rides and thrills.

“She had a birthday party yesterday so we couldn’t come yesterday,” Grift said.

“This is just luck that we are here today.”

“I think it is awesome — it’s not too hot and it’s not too cold,” Brianna said.

Sporting a large Winnie the Pooh stuff bear under one arm and a large green coloured bear under the other, Lisa Nelson said she was having a great time under partly sunny skies on the midway.

“I looked outside yesterday (Saturday) and said ‘nah,’ “ Nelson said laughing.

“But I’m here today with my two kids and a friend and it’s great. I’m hoping the rain holds off and the sun comes out.”

Rogerson said he knows how bad the weather has been when even experienced carnies can’t believe it.

“They say they haven’t gone to a fair in 15 years that has had weather like this.”

Rogerson said the final day of the 66th edition of the Ex started out great with 6,658 people passing through the admission gates in the first hour.

“That may be better than our entire attendance on Monday,” he said.

“Monday it rained a lot and that put us around 6,000 to 7,000 for the day.”

Other highlights on Sunday were more than 2,000 free pancake breakfasts served and traffic lineups at the beginning of the day that had motorists backed up to Moray Street on Portage Avenue and Wilkes Avenue on the Perimeter Highway.

“I don’t think the RCMP were happy with me,” Rogerson said chuckling.

Rogerson said he won’t have attendance figures until sometime this week.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca