Weather you like it or not

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/12/2013 (4493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We can’t go a day without talking about the weather in Winnipeg. That would be like banning Slurpees or shooting Winnie the Pooh.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the weather that was in Winnipeg in 2013. Temperatures have varied greatly (typical) and winter feels like it is going to last forever (more typical).

Many thanks to local meteorologist Dale Marciski for compiling the weather statistics.

 

COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR

YES, it’s been freezing in Winnipeg this December. And yes, your nose is running faster than Usain Bolt. The coldest temperature of the year was recorded earlier this week coincidentally. On Sun. Dec. 15, the mercury dropped to -37.3 C.

That cold snap barely beats out the previous record minimum temperature for Dec. 15: -37.2 C in 1879.

The most frigid wind chill ‘Peggers felt in 2013 happened on Feb 1 — a balmy -45 enveloped the city that day. And the coldest day ever in Winnipeg was Feb. 1, 1996, when the wind chill dropped to -57.

 

HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR

THE beaches of Birds Hill Park were packed on Aug. 28 when the steamiest day of the year peaked at 34.1 C.

And sweat stains increased exponentially on Aug. 24 and Sept. 6 when the temperature with the humidex was 40.

The highest humidex ever recorded in Winnipeg was 47.3 on July 25, 2007 (which doesn’t sound so bad right about now).

 

RAINIEST DAY OF THE YEAR

ON June 20, about 74 millimetres of rain drenched the south end of the city. There were many reports of basement flooding in the Charleswood and Linden Woods areas, while furniture giant IKEA also had about 2.5 centimetres of water covering its ground floor. Customers were evacuated and, thankfully, no monkeys were injured in the incident.

The largest rainfall in Winnipeg history happened on Jun. 26, 1901, with 152.4 mm.

 

WINDIEST DAY OF THE YEAR

VICTORIA Day weekend was a brisk one. Winds gusted to 50 km/h that weekend, causing power outages at Panet Road and Munroe Avenue due to crossed wires blowing in the sky. On the holiday Monday (May 20) winds reached a record 80 km/h.

The strongest wind ever recorded in Winnipeg was 129 km/h on Feb. 20, 1965. In comparison, a moderately sized tornado’s wind speed ranges between 117 and 180 km/h.

 

FIRST SNOWFALL THIS FALL

WHILE the first few snowflakes fell on Oct. 22 (0.2 cm worth), the first snow that fell and stayed in Winnipeg was on Nov. 16. Winnipeggers woke up to three centimetres of snow on the ground Nov. 17 and have been trudging through the stuff ever since.

 

WORST STORM OF THE YEAR, SO FAR

MARCISKI considers the “worst storm” category to be rather subjective.

” ‘Worst’ ” for one (person) might not be the worst for another,” said Marciski. “That rainstorm in Linden Woods and Charleswood with 74 mm might be the worst for them. The 19 cm of snow on March 4-5 was the most significant snowfall for the winter.”

Marciski also noted a rather inconvenient truth.

“The snow stayed on the ground very late this spring. We didn’t lose our snow cover until April 28, which is about a month later than normal.”

 

jessica.botelho-urbanski @freepress.mb.ca