A rare blast of winter in September

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/09/2018 (2863 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A premature snowfall surprised some Winnipeggers and southern Manitobans on Saturday night — but the white stuff has fallen in the area in September in the past.

Tony Cappel and his wife observed snow coming down south of Winnipeg in St. Adolphe at about 8 p.m. Saturday.

“We were just sitting and watching TV,” he said.

“I let the dog out to go do his thing, and it was full-on, actual snow. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s September, what’s going on? This is crazy.’”

Naturally, Cappel took the opportunity to build a snowman.

“I would say we probably got at least a good solid inch… It was thick, heavy snow.”

The weather system started forming Saturday morning, said Environment Canada meteorologist David Baggaley, who works at the Winnipeg office.

“And it tracked across Saskatchewan during the day on Saturday and into (western Manitoba) late afternoon on Saturday,” he said.

“It made its way through Winnipeg in the evening hours, and it basically passed through into Ontario before this morning.” 

Brandon reported five centimetres of snow, Baggaley said, and a climate observer in Winnipeg reported one centimetre Sunday morning.

“It’s a little early to see accumulating snow into Manitoba, but certainly not unheard of. I mean, fall time, you do get the wild oscillations of weather systems coming through, shots of warm air, cold air, sometimes you get plus 30 (C), sometimes you get frost early. It’s just the way weather works in the fall time.”

Manitoba Hydro posted a notice on Twitter that said about 2,000 customers were without service because of snow as of 12:15 p.m. Sunday.

“Most outages are due to heavy snow on trees coming into contact with lines,” the message said.

The last measurable accumulation of snow at Winnipeg’s airport that occurred in September was on Sept. 24 and 25, 1984, said meteorologist Scott Kehler, who is chief scientist with Winnipeg-based forecasting firm Weatherlogics Inc.

“The last time that snow happened in the city, but didn’t accumulate, was Sept. 30 of 2003,” Kehler said.

Put in historical context, Kehler said, Saturday night’s snow “was the third-earliest measurable snow on record” in Winnipeg, records going back to 1872 show. 

“The only other two events that were earlier were Sept. 19, 1945 and September 21, 1947.”

Amateur weather-watcher Claudette Gabbs lives southeast of Winnipeg, between Ste. Anne and Richer and first noticed snow at about 9 p.m. Saturday. She’s lived in the area for about 26 years, and has never personally seen snow this early in the year.

Saturday’s snowfall left Gabbs with one thought: “Too early — way too early.”

Gabbs estimates she got about seven centimetres of snow, which was already melting away on Sunday morning.

The snow isn’t a big problem for her, she said.

“Except for my poor tomatoes… They’re still outside, so I’ve got to take all the fruit off of the plants now.”

Snow also hit some parts of southern Manitoba early Saturday morning. 

Shel Zolkewich said she woke up on Saturday to about three-quarters of an inch of powder on her farm south of Arborg.

“I guess it started sometime through the night. It was raining when we went to bed, and then first thing in the morning I opened my eyes and I was wondering why it seemed so bright outside at 6:30,” she said. “And I looked out the window, and I knew why, then.”

Baggaley said snow could be on the way “because we’re looking at below-normal temperatures for probably the next week or so, if not longer.”

“Our temperatures in the daytime are well above zero, but overnight lows are close to zero. So, if we get any precipitation in the morning hours, we could see some mixed precipitation with that, but we’re not looking at any great systems coming through,” with the exception of some rain expected Sunday night and into Monday.

“It looks like a good period of rain, but we’re not likely to have snow for this next system.” 

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sol_israel