‘It’s just a joyful moment’

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This article was published 13/04/2024 (553 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mother Nature gifted Winnipeg a warm, sun-filled weekend, but Manitoba’s capital might not be rid of Old Man Winter just yet.

Eric Dykes, a senior meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the city enjoyed unseasonably high temperatures this weekend. It reached 19 C Saturday and peaked at around 16 C Sunday.

City golf courses were open, patios filled up and people shook the mothballs out of their T-shirts and shorts. It finally felt like spring.

Dykes said Winnipeg hadn’t experienced warm temperatures at or above 18 C since Oct. 3 — election day.

“It’s just a joyful moment; not having to be trapped inside the house,” said father Eduardo Morales, who treated his daughters Julieta, 9, and Giada, 7, to gelato from Eva’s Gelato & Coffee Bar on Corydon Avenue Sunday afternoon.

“Everybody is happy because we are getting closer to summer.”

Just down the street, walking with their own cups of gelato in hand, couple James Sorza and Victoria Ventura agreed with Morales’ assessment.

“It’s still a bit cold,” Sorza said, referring to a northwest wind that was gusting up to 45 kilometres per hour by 3 p.m., according to Environment Canada.

“But the sunshine is out, so it’s giving everything pre-summer vibes.”

Ventura, who described the weekend warmth as “refreshing” after nearly six months of winter, said she was dismayed by this week’s forecast, which is projecting temperatures to dip once again.

Dual weather systems — one sweeping down from Alaska and the other a Colorado low — are expected to bring colder temperatures and increasing cloudiness Monday night into Tuesday, Dykes warned. On Tuesday, southern Manitoba is forecast to get around 25 mm of rain and thunderstorms are even possible.

On Wednesday, that rain is expected to turn to an undetermined amount of wet snow.

“The rain will be good. It will clean up things a little bit,” said Di Harms, a self-described “Scrabble addict” who was enjoying a round of the word-based board game with her partner and his brother on the Bar Italia patio.

The trio have played Scrabble together almost every weekend for more than a decade. Sunday was the second weekend in a row the weather was warm enough for them to take to the patio, Harms said.

They weren’t alone. Dozens of others were also soaking up the sunshine, along with an assortment of tasty food and drinks, at the popular restaurant in Little Italy.

“This is our neighbourhood. We enjoy their coffee and we love to sit on their patio and watch the world go by,” Harms said.

Luckily, this week’s snowfall shouldn’t stay on the ground long, as temperatures are expected to rebound by the weekend, said Dykes.

Farther north, it’s a different story.

Places like Flin Flon, Thompson and The Pas could receive between 15 to 30 cm of snow, falling Tuesday night into Friday morning, Dykes said.

He said the significant precipitation, likely in the form of rainfall, could mean bad news for areas like Brandon, where the province issued a flood warning Friday for the Assiniboine River between Shellmouth Dam and Brandon. There, fast snow melt is leading to high flows in rivers and tributaries.

Prabhveer Singh was making the most of the warm weather while trying not to think about the potential of incoming snow.

“It was a horrible winter,” he said, speaking from Tyndall Park, where he and more than a dozen friends were had just gathered for a game of cricket.

“People who have been here longer kept telling me it was an easy winter, so the only thing I’m concerned about is how will it be next winter?”

Singh, a University of Winnipeg student who has been in Manitoba for just over one year, described the park’s grass-covered field as a “beautiful” sight.

Playing cricket helps him feel less homesick for the city in India where he was born and raised, he said.

“After winter, after the bland weather, it’s really nice to see.”

Environment Canada is forecasting sunshine and day time highs to return to 10 C by Saturday.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca