Feeling hot, hot, hot… weather records broken across Manitoba

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This article was published 01/02/2024 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Temperature records tumbled across the province on the final day of January as Manitobans basked in unseasonably warm mid-winter weather.

Whether near the U.S. border in Emerson, Morden and Winkler, further north in McCreary and Grand Rapids, or up in The Pas, records which had stood for years, or in some cases decades, were broken.

“There were tons of temperature records set,” said Scott Kehler, president of Weatherlogics, on Thursday.

“It wasn’t just (Wednesday). With an average temperature in January of -12.2 C, we are tired for the 11th-warmest January on record,” he said. “Taking winter as a whole for December and January, currently this is the third-warmest winter on record, but we still have to see what we have in February.”

“Taking winter as a whole for December and January, currently this is the third-warmest winter on record, but we still have to see what we have in February.”–Scott Kehler

McCreary, a town east of Riding Mountain National Park, was the provincial hot spot: it reached 12.1 C to beat the record of 9.5 C in 1993.

While Winnipeggers enjoyed mild temperatures, no record was set.

Winnipeg reached 7.8 C at The Forks, but at the airport, where the official records are set, the mercury rose to 4.7 C. The average high in Winnipeg for this time of year is -11.3 C.

Other temperature records were set at:

Altona: 10.4 C (5 C in 1952)

Arnes: 8.4 C (4.4 C in 1952)

Berens River: 4.2 C (3.9 C in 1993)

Carberry: 4.6 C (4.5 C in 1999)

Carman: 10.1 C (6.5 C)

Deerwood: 10 C (8 C in 1993)

Dominion City: 8.8 C (7.8 C in 1952)

Emerson: 8.8 C (7.8 C in 1952)

Fisher Branch: 7.4 C (5 C in 1993)

Flin Flon: 6.4 C (5.5 C in 1993)

Gimli: 8.4 C (4.4 C in 1952)

Grand Rapids: 6.9 C (6 C in 1993)

Gretna: 10.4 C (5 C in 1952)

Melita: 6.2 C (4.8 C in 2012)

Morden: 11.3 C (7.2 C in 1941)

Oak Point: 3.6 C (2.2 C in 1973)

Pilot Mound: 8.1 C (3.5 C in 2009)

Pine Falls: 9 C (6.1 C in 1952)

Portage la Prairie: 8.9 C (6 C in 1993)

Sprague: 9.6 C (6.1 C in 1952)

Steinbach: 5.6 C (4.5 C in 1993)

The Pas: 7.1 C (5.6 C in 1993)

Winkler: 11.3 C (7.2 C in 1941)

Terri Lang, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said daily above-freezing temperatures are predicted to continue until this weekend.

“This has been a big ridge of high pressure across Western Canada thanks to El Nino,” Lang said.

“This one system saw drenching in B.C. which caused flooding, a big warm up in Alberta, and record-breaking temperatures in Saskatchewan. Manitoba was just the last to get on board.”

The World Meteorological Organization had warned that an El Nino weather pattern was about to return for the first time in seven years. In North America, it results in extreme weather conditions and a milder winter. The climate pattern is associated with the warming of the ocean surface temperature in parts of the Pacific Ocean.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca