Not a whole lot of spring in Winnipeggers’ frozen steps at the moment March hasn’t been this miserable since 1899 — not a single day with the mercury above 0 C; and things aren’t expected to get much better for several weeks
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The weather outside is frightful…
MALAK ABAS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jennifer Kozyniak and her daughter, Madeline Burkholder, are sick of the uncharacteristically cold weather.
Enough already! Winter-weary Winnipeggers want — need — delightful.
Parkas and boots, slippery sidewalks and cranked-up thermostats have many wondering where spring is hiding. Well, perhaps there’s comfort to be found in likely matching a record that has stood icily since 1899: no days above 0 C in March.
Um, yay?
It got tantalizingly close; it was a balmy -0.8 C on both March 10 and 24. It also got down to -25.6 C overnight March 2.
Believe it or not, it could be worse. It has been a much drier March than most years. Remember the mountains of plowed snow and rutted streets drivers navigated last year? And that momentous March in 1899 was downright frigid with an average temperature of -16.1 C. The last especially cold March was in 2014, which had a daily average of -12.7 C. But even that one had days on the civilized side of zero.
Unseasonable cold
A longer cold season spells trouble for Winnipeg’s unhoused population, and those providing support to them.
Siloam Mission has seen fewer donations of winter items than normal, and were starting at a deficit compared to prior years. The lasting cold has only made those issues more prevalent.
A longer cold season spells trouble for Winnipeg’s unhoused population, and those providing support to them.
Siloam Mission has seen fewer donations of winter items than normal, and were starting at a deficit compared to prior years. The lasting cold has only made those issues more prevalent.
“It’s been tough to start with, and the fact that this cold weather has been hanging on so long and people continue to need those things, it (has) compounded some of the struggles in our clothing and health centre areas,” said Luke Thiessen, the communications manager for Siloam Mission.
They are still in need of winter gear, especially considering the cold is expected to stick around for the next few weeks.
“With the extended, unseasonably cold weather we’ve been having, I think the No. 1 thing we’re seeing is, first and foremost, a continuation of what we have been seeing,” Thiessen said.
“People wanting to spend more time inside, out of the cold. Which we have the space for. But when it comes to finite resources like clothing that we get donated, that we’re giving out, socks, jackets, boots and things like that, as well as supplies in our health centre that we give out to help people with cold-related things, those have been in very short supply. We’ve had a really hard time keeping those things on the shelves, getting enough donations in to supply that.”
— Malak Abas
And sadly, the news doesn’t get a whole lot better. Although Sunday’s forecast has the temperature nosing just above the freezing mark, Environment and Climate Change Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Natalie Hasell called it a “hot flash in the pan” before more cold, wind and — sorry about this — snow.
“I think we’re just at the last of it right now, so we should see a shift towards more seasonal conditions,” Hasell told the Free Press. “But this will be slow over here in southern Manitoba. I would not really expect to see consistent seasonal conditions until maybe the middle of April or the third week of April, at this rate.”
Climate change doesn’t just mean warming, Hasell said, because research shows it can cause more extreme weather in both directions.
“We’re not talking about eliminating variability or variation, we’re just talking about increasing the scale, in a sense. So we might bounce back and forth instead of sitting in an average value,” she said. “We might see extremes in other directions, and this is at any time of the year. So, the fact that it is colder this year still jibes with the science coming out of climate-change research.”
Hasell stressed that whenever seasons change, severe weather conditions are possible.
“Even seasonal weather is not necessarily benign. Temperatures could lead to poor road conditions, so roads, highways, sidewalks, parking lots, could be very difficult to navigate as we get into these warmer conditions,” she said. “So people still need to pay attention, even if the weather itself is a little bit more comfortable, it’s not necessarily easier.”
Josh Harder shrugged after learning it’s about to be a record-breaking March. He said it has been a far better winter than last year’s relentless snowfall.
“I’m probably better than the average person with cold,” he said while walking in Wolseley Tuesday morning. “I’ve got a coffee, I’ve got a pair of gloves if I need. I’m good.”
And the forecast didn’t seem to bother him, either.
“I’ve seen snow in May, so…. In March, it always warms up and everyone gets excited about summer coming, and winter comes and hits us again,” he said. “Based on the temperature, sure, maybe it’s true, but to me this doesn’t seem out of place at all.”
MALAK ABAS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Josh Harder is less fazed — he’s used to the cold weather, and after the snowy weather of the year prior, he’s willing to wait it out.
Others out and about Tuesday were less sanguine. Jennifer Kozyniak and her 13-year-old daughter Madeline Burkholder both audibly groaned about the current and forecast conditions.
“I think we’re done,” Kozyniak said. “I had somebody explain it to me as, it almost feels like we’re in the final trimester of pregnancy and we can’t wait for this baby to be born, and it’s not coming, you know?”
The cold could be having a stronger-than-usual effect on people because of the pandemic’s impact, said Kozyniak, who is a psychotherapist.
“I think Manitobans are accustomed to having cold weather and long winters, but I think especially because we’re in this first year of not being in COVID, it’s so nice to just have a little bit of freedom and get out and do stuff, and this is really limiting us,” she said. “We’re all feeling a pretty intense kind of ‘holding in,’ and people are struggling with that.”
RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Penelope Heil hangs out at Fort Whyte with her dad, Bill, picking icicles off the sod hut Tuesday.
Some industries are feeling the impact of the cold, as well. Ideally, construction work begins in March, including moving equipment to sites and assembling building products. But that won’t be the case this year, as work on some projects has been delayed, said Chris Lorenc, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.
“March is very much a preparatory month, and there’s not a lot that’s happening right now,” he said, adding the hope is that summer will have good weather, enabling crews to make up for some of the delays before the brief season ends again in November.
“Our industry is very much influenced by what Mother Nature chooses to saddle us with.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
