Your forecast
Mainly sunny. Local smoke. Wind from the north at 30 km/h. High 23 C. UV index 8 or very high.
Winnipeg was the hottest place in Canada Tuesday afternoon, joining more than a dozen Manitoba communities that shattered local records amid an ongoing heat wave expected to break later this week. Tyler Searle has more here.
Hot and dry weather have made conditions worse for wildfires in many areas of the province.
Eastern Manitoba’s wildfire situation worsened Tuesday as four provincial parks closed and multiple areas were evacuated due to new or ongoing fires that were fanned by strong winds.
States of local emergency and evacuation orders were declared for Nopiming, Wallace Lake, South Atikaki and Manigotagan River provincial parks, while areas of Whiteshell Provincial Park and homes northeast of Lac du Bonnet were evacuated. Erik Pindera reports.

Ontario’s government said a blaze, which started in that province Monday before moving into Manitoba, measured 8,000 hectares. (Ian Farrer photo)
In Winnipeg, the wildfire that ripped through north Transcona Monday ruined the livelihood of dozens of people when it destroyed vehicles on a storage lot.
“There was nothing we can do,” Godspower Emajemite said as he stood among piles of smouldering rubble at 568 Gunn Rd. on Tuesday.
Melted metal, burnt-out vehicle frames and soot was all that was left at the property, Oluspe Autos and Parts Inc., where people rent plots to store and salvage old cars for parts and scrap metal. Nicole Buffie reports.

Godspower Emajemite rents a part of the lot that was burnt by fire. (Mike Deal / Free Press)
Today’s must-read
Premier Wab Kinew promised Tuesday that the people who slaughtered dozens of caribou, including pregnant cows, and dumped their carcasses at the doorstep of American-owned lodge properties in a provincial park, would be punished.
“Anybody who participated in this has no respect for animals, has no right to be able to hunt in this province and will be pursued and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Kinew told the legislature in response to questions about the grisly discovery in Nueltin Lake Provincial Park last month.
Nick Scigliano, who owns two lodge properties in the park just south of the border with Nunavut, shared video of the grisly scene, discovered April 11, when he chartered a helicopter to check on his properties. Carol Sanders has the story.

The grisly scene was discovered on April 11, when lodge owner Nick Scigliano chartered a helicopter to check on his properties. (Nick Scigliano photo)
On the bright side
Months after thieves broke into a North End meat shop and stole a priceless family heirloom, sparking a community-wide search, a Good Samaritan has returned it to its rightful owners.
The vintage cash register had long sat behind Tenderloin Meat and Sausage’s window, a tribute to Walter Klopick, the late patriarch of the family business. When the glass was shattered and the empty register was stolen in late February, son and current owner Christian Klopick was devastated and took to social media in an effort to find it.
But as the weeks passed, he gave up hope of ever finding it.
Friday afternoon, a man walked into the store, dragging a pull cart covered with a tarp, and told the staff he had something of theirs. Malak Abas has the story here.

Christian Klopick was shocked to have the vintage cash register, which was a fixture at Tenderloin Meat and Sausage, returned. (Mike Deal / Free Press)
On this date
On May 14, 1953: The Winnipeg Free Press reported wheat acreage across the prairies was being reduced, but the overall decrease from 1952 was 24,981,000 acres, or 0.9 per cent; the most marked increase in any grains appeared in Manitoba, where farmers were putting four per cent more land in barley and rye. One man was awaiting sentencing and another was being sought in the theft of $21,500 worth of copper wire from a temporarily unused power line of the Winnipeg Electric Company. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.

Today’s front page
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