Joke’s on us: wacky weather wallops Winnipeg

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This article was published 30/03/2021 (1807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The weather gods had fun with Winnipeggers Monday.

We were lulled into thinking spring had arrived as the mercury soared to a record high, and then thrust into the depths of despair with a shock of winter — all in 24 hours.

The “one-day wonder” set a record high of 19.8 C, the warmest March 29 since 1872, which is when weather data began to be collected. (The old record was 18.2 C in 2010.)

The city was Canada’s hot spot Monday.

By midnight, the mercury had dropped to 0 C and the wind had picked up to about 50 km/h. It only got worse Tuesday morning: freezing drizzle turned to snow and the wind had gusts up to 80 km/h as the city was under a wind warning and blowing snow advisory. The temperature was -11 C at 9 a.m.

The shift was unique in its “fast and furious” nature, Environment Canada climatologist Dave Phillips said.

“From a weather point of view, that is dramatic,” he said. “It’s almost like what’s happening at your front door is different than your back door.”

Both the warm weather and the sudden cold front were caused by a low-pressure system from Alberta that travelled eastward.

Phillips said the strange conditions were disappointing because, should more snow had fallen, it could have been an opportunity to provide much-needed moisture for the soil.

“It had all of the bark and no bite to it,” he said. “The bite would’ve been some nice snow to give that drink of water to the crops or at least to the soil, get it nice and moist and get seeding going. But it was really nothing good.”

Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler called the sudden snowfall “not a moisture event, but rather a conditions event.”

“Really our concern going into last night and this morning was the fact that the conditions of the highways were in such poor shape as they were still icy,” he said. “It really had little to do with the kind of snowfall or the depth of the snowfall.”

It’ll stay brisk over the next day or so, but we’ll soon be able to hang up our parkas, Phillips said, and expect sunnier days ahead.

“Hold on to your hats, because, my gosh – Thursday it’ll be up to 10 degrees, and 15 degrees on Friday, so a weekend that’s going to be warm and sunny,” he said.

“And this’ll be a distant memory, this one-day wonder.”

— With files from Sarah Lawrynuik

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_